Editorials
Appreciating the Pulpy Sci-fi Horror of ‘Alien: Resurrection’
Despite its ups and downs, I’ve always respected the Alien franchise for daring to try something new with every new entry. From Vietnam allegories to reimagining Chariots of the Gods as a Lovecraftian origin story for the Xenomorphs, the series challenges the very concept of genre as it explores what might go wrong when humanity comes into contact with a truly perfect organism.
And with Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus paying homage to the most underrated movie in the franchise during its horrific final act, today I’d like to look back on Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s unfairly maligned Alien: Resurrection and dive into why I think this oddball gem of a film deserves more love.
Like many sequels, the story of Resurrection begins soon after the release of its predecessor. Desperate for a course-correction after the grimdark prison story of Alien³ left audiences feeling frustrated (which was the studio’s own fault, as they sabotaged David Fincher’s vision every step of the way), Fox attempted to recruit established filmmakers like Danny Boyle, Peter Jackson and even David Cronenberg before landing on French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. While Jeunet is now mostly known for Amélie, he’d made a name for himself in the 90s with dark parables like the criminally underseen Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children – making him the perfect choice to take the Xenomorphs in a novel direction.
Working off a script written by Joss Whedon (who would later repurpose elements of the story in Firefly due to his dissatisfaction with Jeunet’s handling of the material), the filmmaker and his team faced slashed budgets and tight schedules once shooting finally began. Jeunet even required a French-to-English interpreter in order to communicate with the crew, which is why he insisted that the shooting script should be illustrated like a comic-book. Despite these difficulties, Alien: Resurrection would ultimately be released on schedule in November of 1997.
In the finished film, we follow an augmented clone of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as she wakes up on a medical research vessel two centuries after the events of Alien³. Using the original Ripley’s infected DNA, military scientists were able to clone a Xenomorph queen and are now conducting experiments on her offspring. When the aliens inevitably escape, Ripley 8 joins forces with an ensemble of mercenaries, soldiers and other survivors (portrayed by a collection of talented actors including Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon) in order to stop the damaged vessel from returning to earth and setting the creatures loose.
SO WHAT WENT WRONG?
Despite the film’s financial success (which can be largely attributed to its ingenious marketing campaign, which also happened to gift us with the first modern first-person-shooter game on consoles), Resurrection was so poorly received that it basically killed off the main franchise. In fact, while Alien³ has a lower score on Rotten Tomatoes, that flick has seen been reevaluated as a misunderstood religious thriller due to the Assembly Cut – a privilege that wasn’t extended to its successor.
One recurring point of criticism was directed at the handling of Ripley’s character arc by bringing Weaver back immediately after a heroic sacrifice. While this doesn’t bother me personally since Ripley 8 is technically a brand-new character that only happens to share some memories with her namesake, I can understand how this addition might piss off Alien fans who were already frustrated with the previous film’s decision to kill off Newt, Hicks and Bishop. This wasn’t helped by Weaver’s explanation that she only agreed to return because they “drove a dump-truck of money” to her house, though she has since admitted that the harrowing scene where she encounters her “sisters” was also a big attraction.
Of course, the most common complaint was about Resurrection’s generally unserious tone, with both fans and critics claiming that the pulpy sci-fi approach didn’t fit the franchise’s somber origins. After all, the rag-tag crew of The Betty felt a lot more like something out of Star Wars than even Aliens’ playful yet realistic colonial marines – and that’s not even mentioning the exaggerated mad science behind the messy plot.
Lastly, there’s the simple matter of this being the fourth entry in a long-running series. The novelty factor of Giger’s monsters was long gone by 1997, with the Xenomorphs having become such a huge part of popular culture (from Contra to Spaceballs) that it was hard for audiences to see them as a genuine threat.
All in all, it was the perfect storm for Resurrection to end up not getting the recognition that it deserved.
THE SILVER LINING
As is often the case with movies that are initially disliked but end up finding their true audience later on, many of the things that critics hated about Alien: Resurrection are precisely what make it an entertaining watch today. In hindsight, the schlocky B-movie tone is a feature, not a bug, and the fact that the film feels nothing like the rest of the franchise is my favorite part of the experience. We’d already seen three other Xenomorph infestations at that point, so if the studio was going to force filmmakers to bring Ripley back for more after her poignant death, they might as well have some fun with it.
From the charming ensemble that makes the flick entertaining even when the Xenomorphs aren’t onscreen (I especially appreciate Perlman, Pinon and Brad Dourif’s contributions to the flick) to the grungy sci-fi aesthetic, there’s a lot of great filmmaking going on here if you can warm up to the new vibe. Hell, the cinematographer even added extra silver particles to the negative development process in order to give the picture a futuristic tinge!
The film also features some of the most genuinely disturbing moments in the entire franchise, with Whedon and Jeunet landing on some unsettling psychosexual story-beats as Ripley deals with malformed clones and a disgusting Xenomorph hybrid child that still haunts my nightmares. Not all of these new elements stick the landing (I’m still on the fence about Ripley 8 empathizing with the aliens), but I appreciate how the filmmakers at least tried to keep things fresh for the third sequel.
Of course, that’s not even mentioning the added brutality, with Resurrection offering up plenty of memorable death scenes and unexpectedly gnarly moments like having a Xenomorph mutilate itself in order to produce acid blood and escape its bonds. These are all enhanced by gritty industrial visuals that make great use of hand-made miniatures and set design – though it’s a shame that the Xenomorph is brought to life through janky CGI.
Alien: Resurrection might not be able to compete with the grounded space-trucker thrills of the original – or even the action/sci-fi blockbuster blend of Cameron’s sequel – but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. It’s simply a different take on the source material. And with modern franchise films being satisfied in simply reliving the glory days of their respective IPs instead of exploring new ideas, I find myself respecting this strange experiment a lot more every time I revisit it.
H.R. Giger himself called Resurrection an excellent film – what better praise could you ask for?
Watching a bad movie doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad experience. Even the worst films can boast a good idea or two, and that’s why we’re trying to look on the bright side with The Silver Lining, where we shine a light on the best parts of traditionally maligned horror flicks.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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