Movies
Intense and Breathtaking “Alien: Special Order” Fan Film Used Valve Software to Animate!
We’ve hit the point where anyone with a little bit of cash and a whole lot of time can be a filmmaker. It’s exciting because it’s no longer an elite club of filmmakers, and the kid next door could become the next big name in Hollywood. Technology has allowed us to expand our creative boundaries, expressing vision in new kinds of formats. Take this fan-made short film, which used Source Filmmaker to pull from assets from “Alien: Isolation” and other games.
“Alien: Special Order” is French filmmaker Louis Thomann‘s love letter to the Alien films, which took two years to assemble. The premise is simple: “Bring back life form. Priority One. All other priorities rescinded.” The impact: beyond unprecedented. Mixing elements of found footage, “Alien: Special Order” is breathtaking, shocking, violent, intense, and nothing short of spectacular.
“This is a fan film based on the Alien movies that I started to develop almost two years ago all alone, and was created on spare time only,” said Thomann. “Without any budget, shot the film in real conditions was something that would be impossible to achieve regarding the need of the scenery that took place in Alien, and so, I’ve decided to develop it through the Source Filmmaker, a video game engine created by Valve Software, that allowed me to create an animation film in real time.”
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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