Episode Details

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys. In this episode we’re talking about two of the greatest back to back franchise entries of all time: 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens

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We start by talking about what we’ve seen or done lately in the field of horror. Liam talks about an upcoming screening of Knife + Heart at the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem and our recent screening of Al White’s Starfish in Philadelphia, and Justin talks about seeing A Hole In The Ground, the trailers for Midsommar and The Dead Don’t Die, and attending the recent New Jersey Horror Convention. We also talk about Jordan Peele’s recent film Us.

We begin by talking about Alien. We begin by giving a background on the creators of the film, including Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger. We discuss Giger’s influence on the film, and how his surreal and sexual style of art shaped the perception and themes of the film.

The myriad sexual themes of the film are discussed, including an interpretation of a fear of sex, a fear of penetration, a male fear of rape, a male fear of birth, and a fear of the feminine. We briefly touch upon how O’Bannon solved Lovecraft’s “monster problem” by presenting us with a very unique and very well defined monster. The films idea of the ignorance and myopic nature of humanity’s universal view is discussed. The film’s place in the broader genre of “body horror” is touched upon.

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