Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Doctor Bernice Murphy and Joey Keogh, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.
So this week, a Halloween treat: Ridley Scott’s Alien.
A mysterious signal from deep space awakens the crew of the shipping vessel Nostromo. Following standing orders to respond, the crew find themselves drawn to a hostile and barren world. They track the signal to the wreckage of a strange and mysterious craft. However, there might just be something sinister stirring deep within that wreckage.
At time of recording, it was ranked 52nd on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 7th October 2021.
- Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
- Alien at the Internet Movie Database.
- The Bottom 100 at time of recording.
- Follow Bernice on Twitter.
- Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Amazon.com.
- Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Amazon.co.uk.
- Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Edinburgh University Press.
- The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture by Bernice Murphy, October 2013.
- Follow Joey on Twitter.
- Read Joey’s articles at Wicked Horror.
- Read Joey’s articles at Vague Visages.
- James Cameron talks to Film 4 about adopting a different approach to Aliens than Ridley Scott did to Alien, March 2016.
- James Cameron talks to Entertainment Weekly about how Aliens is a fundamentally different kind of film than Alien, September 2016.
- Darren Mooney discusses at The Escapist how Aliens is the perfect sequel to Alien, July 2021.
- Anna Menta at Decider reports on the Twitter debate over whether Alien is really a horror film, April 2021.
- Phelim O’Neill at The Guardian looks back on the life and career of Dan O’Bannon, December 2009.
- Adam Bumas at Lewton Bus discusses Dark Star as a point of origin for Alien, May 2017.
- Kevin Lyons at The BFI looks at the vast influence of Dark Star on the evolution of horror and science-fiction cinema, October 2015.
- Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert discuss Alien on Sneak Peaks, 1979.
- Vincent Canby reviews Alien for The New York Times, May 1979.
- Pauline Kael asks “why are movies so bad?” for The New Yorker, June 1980.
- Derek Malcolm reviews Alien for The Guardian, May 1979.
- James Crowley at Newsweek looks at why space is fundamentally scary, June 2020.
- Harris Brewer discusses the enduring appeal of VHS as a format at Scanline, September 2017.
- Ridley Scott offers an account of the production of Alien for American Cinematographer, July 2017.
- Derek Vanlint discusses the challenges of shooting Alien with American Cinematographer, July 2017.
- Yaphet Kotto talks to SyFy Wire about playing Parker in Alien, February 2015.
- Sigourney Weaver talks to The Guardian about her career and the production of Alien, December 2017.
- Edward Lauder at Small Screen reports on Disney’s plan for the Alien franchise following their acquisition of Fox, March 2021.
- Joe Otterson at Variety reports on plans for an Alien television series from Noah Hawley for FX, December 2020.
- Ridley Scott talks to Hollywood Archives about the Director’s Cut of Alien, March 2015.
- Liz Arcury at Hello Giggles writes about how Alien is a horror movie about being a woman in the workplace, October 2019.
- Thomas Hobbs at Little White Lies discusses the gender politics of Alien, May 2017.
- Michaela Barton at Flip Screened talks about the queer readings of Alien, August 2020.
- Ridley Scott talks to The Los Angeles Times about casting Sigourney Weaver, May 2020.
- Ridley Scott talks to Comic Book Resources about gender-flipping the role of Ripey in Alien, June 2020.
- Ernest Leogrande reviews Alien for The New York Daily News, May 1979.
- Variety reviews Alien, December 1978.
- Darren Mooney at The Escapist writes about the sexual horror of the androids within the larger Alien franchise, June 2020.
- Mark Veltman at Comic Book Resources reports on the retroactive revelation that Lambert is transgender, March 2021.
- Meagan Navarro at Bloody Disgusting looks at the theme of motherhood in the Alien franchise, May 2019.
- Jacob Stolworthy at The Independent reports on the true story behind the iconic “chestburster” scene in Alien, January 2017.
- Bradley Harding at ScreenRant looks at the infamous “egg-morphing” deleted scene from Alien, August 2020.
- John Brownlee at Fast Company looks back on H.R. Giger’s design of the eponymous monster from Alien, September 2016.
- Lonnie Nadler at Bloody Disgusting takes a look at the influence of Giger’s Necronomicon on the creature design in Alien, January 2014.
- Dan O’Bannon talks to The Washington Post about the influences and metaphors at work in Alien, July 1979.
- Tasha Robinson at The Dissolve looks back on the Alien franchise as a series about sexual violence, June 2015.
- Ben Popper at The Verge discusses the theme of body horror running through the Alien franchise, May 2017.
- Fact Source looks at how Dan O’Bannon’s experiences with Crohn’s Disease inspired the monster in Alien, June 2020.
- Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva, 1982.
- Jenni Holtz at 14East discusses the use of “the monstrous feminine” in Alien, May 2019.
- Mary Beth McAndrews at Film School Rejects discusses the anti-capitalist subtext of Alien, September 2019.
- Jim Edwards at Business Insider discusses the economic principles that drive the Alien universe, June 2012.
- Michael Kernan at The Washington Post reports on how the money George Lutz raised from The Amityville Horror mostly went to pay “old debts”, September 1979.
- Nora Dominick at BuzzFeed reports on the importance of the “hairtie” scene in Birds of Prey, February 2020.
- Follow The 250 on Twitter.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: alien, bernice murphy, body horror, capitalism, Dan O'Bannon, doctor bernice murphy, Ellen Ripley, femininity, gender, halloween, horrorm, joey keogh, ridley scott, signourney weaver, space, The 250, the monstrous feminine, Veronica Cartwright, xenomorph |
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