#dan o’bannon

[michael-biehns-domme]

This is your yearly reminder that the horror-comedy The Return of the Living Dead (1985) has the most terrifying and deadliest depiction of zombies yet.

Why you may ask? Because…

They speak.

They run.

They are intelligent enough to set traps and deceive people.

Animals and insects can also become zombies.

They basically can’t be killed. Headshots and decapitations aren’t good enough. You have to burn the bodies to complete ash, or else body parts and bones will still come after you.

The fumes that come from incineration can still create more zombies via the water cycle (rain) being transferred into graves.

Zombies specifically eat brains to mitigate the pain that comes from being dead; It’s their only solace. This might also imply that dead people are still conscious and that 2 4 5 Trioxin only enables them to finally be animated.

Fun fact: The Return of the Living Dead is the reason why zombies are now portrayed as specifically loving brains. They literally say it constantly throughout the film that they love brains. Also, Tarman is definitely the coolest looking zombie ever!

#80s #movies #film #60s 70s 80s 90s #80s nostalgia #80s science fiction #the return of the living dead #return of the living dead #zombie #zombies #zombie movies #Dan o’bannon #tarman

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

#movies #polls #the return of the living dead #return of the living dead #80s movies #dan o’bannon #clu gulager #james karen #requested #have you seen this movie poll #body horror tw

[texaschainsawmascara]

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

#the return of the living dead #horror #movie #film #80s #dan o'bannon #dan o’bannon #comedy #horror comedy #80s horror #return of the living dead

[snoopybutch]

4 my horror/sci fi girlies someone uploaded the behind the scenes/making of alien 1979 onto YouTube . . It’s 2 hrs n 57 min long

#alien 1979 #alien #hr giger #space horror #alien horror #dan o’bannon #ridley scott #ronald shusett #nostromo #horror #sci fi #tom skerritt #sigourney weaver #veronica cartwright #harry dean stanton #john hurt #ian holm #yaphet kotto #body horror #bolaji badejo

[umamidaddy]

Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974) X "Boris" (The Melvins, 1991)

This low budget D.I.Y. sci-fi classic started as a USC film school project and launched the careers of John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) and Dan O'Bannon (writer of Alien). Its slow, deliberate pacing pairs well with this sludgy epic by the Melvins, which is possibly my favorite doom/stoner metal jam of all time AND the namesake for the Japanese metal group, Boris.

#dark star #john carpenter #dan o’bannon #melvins #the melvins #boris #bullhead #aesthetic edits

[apaneladay]

Dan O’Bannon (writer), Moebius (artist) The Long Tomorrow In Metal Hurlant Vol. 1 #7-8 (1975) Published by Les Humanoïdes Associés Spanish edition

#dan o’bannon #moebius #metal hurlant #comics #comic panels

[70sscifiart]

“Soft Landing,” a four-page comic by Dan O’Bannon and Thomas Warkentin, from Heavy Metal magazine, September 1979

#heavy metal #comics #photo set

[societyclub]

The Return of the Living Dead (1985) dir. Dan O’Bannon

#the return of the living dead #filmedit #horroredit #userscary #usercliff #userbrittany #classichorrorblog #usersavana #userraffa #userjoss #userzo #userjack #tusertyler #userkayleigh #userbeckett #dan o'bannon #ours #80s #briana

[spnscripthunt]

Movie Scripts

Alien Script – First draft by Dan O’Bannon.

Alien Script – Third draft by Walter Hill and David Giler.

Alien Script – Final draft, June 1978.

Alien Script – Revised final draft by Walter Hill and David Giler, notations by Terry Rawlings, dated June 1978.

Alien Script – Revised final draft, October 4th 1978.

Alien 2 Treatment – Aliens treatment by David Giler, Walter Hill & James Cameron, dated September 21st 1983.

Aliens Script – First draft by James Cameron, dated February 26th 1985.

Aliens Script – Another “first draft” by James Cameron, dated May 28th 1985.

Aliens Script – Final draft, dated September 23rd 1985.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by William Gibson, first draft, 1987.

Alien 3 Script – Second draft by William Gibson, January 1988.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by Eric Red, dated February 7th 1989.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by David Twohy (October 1989)

Alien 3 Script – Draft by John Fasano, dated March 29th 1990.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by Walter Hill & David Giler, dated October 10 1990.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by Walter Hill & David Giler, dated December 18th 1990.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by Rex Pickett (rewrite of Walter Hill & David Giler draft December 18th 1990), dated January 5th 1991.

Alien 3 Script – Draft by Walter Hill & David Giler, dated January 11th 1991.

Alien Resurrection Script – First draft, dated 14th September 1995.

Alien Resurrection Script – Second draft, dated July 22nd 1996.

Alien Resurrection Script – Unknown draft.

Alien Resurrection Storyboard Script – French text, dated October 7th 1996.

Alien: Engineers Script – Pre-Prometheus script (possibly the 4th draft or a revision of it) written by Jon Spaihts.

Alien 01: Genesis Script – Pre-Prometheus script (5th draft or a revision of it but not the final) written by Jon Spaihts. Dated 9th July 2010.

Prometheus Script – Final draft by Damon Lindelof

Paradise (Prologue) Script – Opening scenes of an early Alien: Covenant draft by John Logan. This would eventually form the basis for The Crossing viral. Dated August 6, 2015.

Paradise Lost Script – Early Alien: Covenant draft by John Logan. Dated August 19, 2015.

Alien: Covenant Script – Early draft by John Logan. Dated November 20, 2015.

#alien day #alien series #screenplays #alien #aliens #alien 3 #alien resurrection #prometheus #alien covenant #avpgalaxy is a treasure of a site #userbrittany #yeah yeah i'm late i know

[cellarspider]

20/?? Special delivery

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We return to a movie that has never been to medical school, Prometheus. 

Here it is. The scene that everybody remembers because it gave a fair few people the screaming heebies. This is their version of the chestburster scene–except for the less impactful, literal version of the chestburster scene we’ll get later, I mean. This one, though, this one, they got it right.

Content warnings for gore, nudity, nude gore, exhaustive discussions of the place of chestbursting in franchise history.

But first! I saw a tag with a desire to see the scene with David and the star map. To spare everyone from watching the rest of the movie to get there, here it is!

[See previous post for lengthy description of the events. I didn’t talk about the music in this before though! It really adds to the sense of wonder in this scene. It reminds me of Daft Punk’s Overture to Tron Legacy (2010), another beautiful and flawed movie. Given the modern use of temporary music in editing that definitely sneaks into what directors demand of scores, there’s a chance this was a direct influence. In terms of the “oh wow, space!” feeling it gives me, I’d also mention the Star Trek TNG opening theme.]

Anyway! On with the horror.

In Alien, the creature’s life cycle was developed by writer Dan O'Bannon, who had two major ideas for its early appearances: sexual, reproductive threat directed at a male character, and Crohn’s disease. O’Bannon had Crohn’s, and he said that inspired the idea of a critter chewing its way out of a man’s guts. 

That personal connection has been lost through subsequent media, in part because the series has continued to use the same creature and the same method of killing, minor deviations like in Covenant and tasteless ones like AvP Requiem notwithstanding. The chestburster is a thing that can only ever really work once in a movie. The first time is relatively drawn out, made a setpiece of the movie, and is a horrifying plot twist for anyone who goes in blind. After that? Drawing it out may risk becoming meaningless gore or boring, so most movies have chosen to just have the little bugger pop out within seconds. It’s the sideshow before you get to the main event, despite being the iconic scene of Alien.

Prometheus’ equivalent scene wins back a fair amount of tension by altering the details of the event, if not the general arc of it. It certainly hammers on the reproductive horror aspect, but loses the original subversion of targeting a male character. Which is a shame, because male-targeted reproductive horror is still boundary-pushing. From the world of horror gaming, Outlast: Whistleblower produced some notably panicked reactions from male players when they encountered the emasculating, specifically reproductive threat of Eddie Gluskin. (Content warning for gore, death, forced feminization, misogynistic language, censored nudity.)

Regardless, we have The Chestburster Scene again, but now it’s in the back half of the movie, and happens to the main human protagonist.

I find it very odd that this movie is so self-consciously iterating over things that were first done in Alien. It’s like watching a devout Catholic pray at the Stations of the Cross.

Speaking of crosses

Before we get to the main event, there’s the first actual attempt at character work between David and Shaw in the movie, as we’re in the final act. David confiscates Shaw’s cross as she wakes up from her post-boyfriend-barbeque faint. “It may be contaminated,” he says.

Shaw’s christianity is one of the few character traits in the film that ties into one of the themes, and has its own arc. She’s giving up her cross to the person who killed her partner, a metaphor for a crisis of faith which is so blatant as to barely be a metaphor at all. And, given the general arc of how these things go, means she’s going to get it back at some point. The context for it is going to be confusing and disappointing, frankly.

And it’s especially weird given the other metaphor going on simultaneously: David runs some scans on her, and declares she’s three months pregnant. This is a non-virgin virgin pregnancy. She is Alien Mary. This, then, is the narrative reason why Shaw is infertile–so that she could be the Mary figure, and, more practically for the plot, have foreknowledge that something was wrong. 

Except it really didn’t have to be that way to make this work. While christian allegory and the creation of life are themes in this movie, Shaw’s infertility was handled with zero grace. And honestly, the movie could work without it–Shaw and Holloway did not have romantic chemistry, as far as I could tell. Lean into that! Just say they haven’t had sex in ages. This scene would actually flow better, because Shaw explicitly objects that she only had sex with Holloway “ten hours ago. There's no bloody way I'm three months pregnant.”

Which again hammers in how stupid fast this movie has been racing its characters toward their doom, but I’m immediately distracted by David pronouncing “it's not exactly a traditional fetus.”

It certainly isn’t. It’s an alien squid, placed there by the holy spirit of black goo. She’s all set to give birth to Squesus. 

I think that’s the only worse way he possibly could’ve said it.

David, frankly, gets some of his worst dialog of the movie here, because he is infected by The Plot for a bit. “It must feel like your God has abandoned you,” he says, after sedating her, “to loose Dr. Holloway after your father died under such similar circumstances.” Which leaves one momentarily with the wild mental image of Dad Shaw sacrificing himself to a flamethrower-welding corpo, but no, David means ebola. David found this out via that dream-watching tech that exists solely to be a mildly unnecessary plot point. Blessedly, this is the last time we see any mention of it.

It’s very strange, how the movie is stuffed full of plot and edited so tightly around the plot that characters barely have room to breathe, yet what it prioritizes as plot-relevant is so scattershot. This failing is also inflicted upon the part of the otherwise very effective Chestburster: The Prequel scene.

Shaw attacks the people who come to take her away to cryo, running in her underwear to the PAULING MED-POD the movie very loudly announced earlier, so that you wouldn’t forget it exists. She tells the PAULING MED-POD that she needs an emergency caesarian. The PLOTPOINT MED-POD informs her that it’s only formatted for male patients.

I’ve seen many people complain this makes no sense. It’s in Vickers’ quarters,  why would she have an expensive medical device that she can’t fully use? Others counter that no, it makes sense, because the med-pod was actually installed for Peter Weyland, thus justifying its male specificity. He’s a selfish bastard, he got it for himself, plot hole avoided.

…Except that doesn’t address the more fundamental problem: What does this add to this scene, to balance out the fact that the audience is now distracted by this information? It slows Shaw down a bit as she figures out how to cue up a foreign body extraction from the abdominal cavity, adding to the tension. But you don’t need that to be what draws out the scene. Maybe the PAULING MED-POD has a slow boot-up sequence. Maybe someone follows her there, and she has to fight them off, possibly killing them in her panic. A dead body in the room would solve an actual logical problem with a later scene.

It’s frustrating, because the pacing of this scene is actually excellent, as is its premise. Shaw has to forego anesthesia and make do with self-administered local painkillers, because the prosthetics and CG teams have done a bang-up job making her stomach writhe unpleasantly, making it very clear that whatever’s in there is mobile enough to be a danger to her, even if it’s removed. 

The pods instruments are mostly CG, but its combination of unhurried routine and abrupt, industrial roboticism adds to the uncomfortable nature of the scene. Sound design is also important here, with all sound effects well-chosen, and mixed to imply claustrophobic closeness and how trapped Shaw is.

The creature itself? Eh. It’s a slightly phallic squid, and squids were already slightly phallic to begin with. They added on a slightly vaginal mouth, which is also a lateral move--squid mouths already look quite a lot like an unworksafe orifice with a beak tucked away in it. Unless you're looking at Promachoteuthis sulcus, whose inner lip structures fold into patterns that look distressingly like human teeth.

Honestly, this is freakier than the actual prop. Good job, Promachoteuthis sulcus. You're only 25 mm long, and a delightful tiny terror.

...But the fact that Shaw’s stuck in the pod with her flailing squid-child is what actually adds another minute of fear and wince-worthy pain, as the almost comically brutal medical staple gun closes her incision and the pod slowly opens up.

She tries to kill it with what appears to be a soothing mist of decontamination spray. This is the one other stumble of the scene, because it’s just… I mean, look at it.

It’s just been spritzed with Febreze. There’s nothing that leaves you wondering if the thing’s still alive for later, you know it’s still alive.

But overall, a well-done scene. The standout horror scene of the movie, which is light on scares. That sparsity wouldn’t even be worth mentioning if the movie were going for slow tension, but with its strange blend of existential quandaries and unremarkable horror tropes, it takes a very strong, singular scene to feel like the tension has actually paid off. I don’t think it completely balances out the deficits of the rest of the horror, but it very nearly manages it, and does manage to be memorable.

Next time: An entirely underwhelming horror scene, and the movie takes another swing at having themes.

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Citations for alt-text rambles:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/30/memory-the-origins-of-alien-review-francis-bacon-greek-myth-dan-o-bannon-sci-fi-classic-film 

https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/aliens-chestburster-mechanism-behind-the-scenes 

https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Seegson 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3314219/how-do-u-v-coordinates-work 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgical_staple (medical gore cw)

https://sites.uw.edu/pauling2020/ 

https://www.paulinamarket.com/

Overflow Ramble #1

A shot of the screen on Chekhov’s g–I mean the PAULING MED-POD, showing the text “EMERGENCY PROCEDURE”, and that it is “AWT VERBAL CMD”. The med-pod turns out to be a Weyland product, because all corporations in Alien movies are either Weyland, Yutani, or Seegson, if you’re particularly unlucky (cite 3). 

They made the mistake of putting more actual words on here, and so I’m squinting at the top right corner at “CARDIAC STRESS TEST”, “ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY” AND “MECH ALGN TCH”, which means the pod appears to think she needs to have her heart checked or her wheels aligned.

But what I find funniest is that there’s coordinate sliders in the center bottom: X/Y/Z and U/W. You know where I recognize that from? 3D modeling. U/V/W are used as an alternate coordinate system in that context (cite 4). Somebody was designing this, thinking “well, we need more buttons. Where can I get more buttons?” and then looked at the horrid mass of options and sliders in their modeling software and realized they had the answer.

Overflow Ramble #2

A close-up of David’s hands, holding a sample container and placing Shaw’s necklace inside. Two details, one of them insane, the other just plain funny: First of all, this is a different set of hands than the one when David was messing with the black goo–there was a small but notable blemish on the fingerprint that wasn’t there, proving once again that hand and arm doubles are one of the odder things you don’t think about in film production.

Second: The container is turned so that the label on it is facing away. This allows you to see the necklace, but it also highlights a completely flat Braille label, reading “PN#ZTZouSthe#Z”, which is obviously very informative.

But the real reason why the label is facing away is because it almost hides the fact that the label says “PRODUCT CODE” on it, which means he may have just put Shaw’s necklace in an empty peanut butter jar.

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#Prometheus 2012 #Prometheus (2012) #finally some well done scenes #though the plot still does not leave them unscathed #Youtube

[lostattheedge]

One of the posters by Moebius for the unproduced Jodorowsky's Dune.

"Director Alejandro Jodorowky put together a group of “spiritual warriors” to aid him in this quest to make Dune into a movie, including the core team of Dan O’Bannon (who went on to create Alien), H.R. Giger, and the French artist Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, whose character designs and storyboards are the concrete manifestations of Jodorowsky’s vision. Jodorowsky also sought out Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Pink Floyd, and Mick Jagger, among others. The project resulted in a tome the size of several phonebooks, including paintings, designs, technical solutions, and a storyboard by Moebius—but no film. Studios shied away from Jodorowsky, daunted in no small part by the film’s proposed fourteen hour running time."

#hr giger #moebius #dan o'bannon #jean giraud #alejandro jodorowsky #jodorowsky's dune #color illustration

[talesfromthecrypts]

2022 Halloween Script Countdown: 10/10- Alien (1979)

Screenplay by Dan O’Bannon Revised Screenplay by Walter Hill and David Giller

#alien #filmedit #horroredit #userscary #tuserdana #usergiles #usermichi #halloween2022 #mygifs #next year remind me not to do a special event

[dearorpheus]

return of the living dead (1985) dir. dan o’bannon

#me and the mutuals #my upload #film

[2arttt]

The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

Dan O’Bannon

#zombie #zombies #the return of the living dead #george a. romero #movies #weird movies #horror #horror movies #slashers #classic horror movies

[sobreiromecanico]

Alien: Remulus: primeiro trailer

Não tenho exactamente a certeza de ainda existir algo de interessante para dizer no universo ficcional de Alien.

Certo: o filme original de 1979 é um marco no cinema de ficção científica (será talvez o meu segundo filme preferido do género, e eu nem sou muito dado ao cinema de horror), com a excelente realização de Ridley Scott, o argumento muito coeso de Dan O’Bannon (numa autêntica lição de show, don’t tell), um elenco brilhante e os designs de H.R. Giger, Chris Foss e Ron Cobb. Enfim, uma tempestade perfeita, um relâmpago capturado numa garrafa: é um filme irrepetível. Há uns anos, a propósito da estreia de Alien: Covenant, tive a oportunidade de ver o filme original numa sessão especial organizada nos Cinemas UCI do El Corte Inglés, e é incrível como à data um filme com quase 40 anos continuava a ter tanto impacto e a ser tão poderoso em termos visuais quando visto no grande ecrã.

(admita-se que ver Alien numa sala de cinema imediatamente antes de ver Alien: Covenant não faz nenhum favor ao segundo)

Talvez Aliens, a sequela que James Cameron realizou em 1986, não fosse exactamente necessária, mas o Cameron dos anos 80 e 90 sabia como fazer uma boa continuação: desenvolveu a Ellen Ripley de Sigourney Weaver de forma muito interessante (e confirmou-a como ícone) e mostrou um pouco mais daquelas criaturas e daquele futuro de forma muito inteligente, sem no entanto revelar demasiado - certo, há uma rainha, mas as origens das criaturas continuam a ser um enigma. Alien 3, de David Fincher, é um exercício de frustração com excelentes ideias; Alien: Resurrections, de Jean-Pierre Jeunet, é igual mas em pior.

Dos Alien vs Predator não falaremos.

Prometheus terá sido talvez a maior desilusão que tive numa sala de cinema: um trailer muitíssimo promissor, uma campanha de marketing inteligente, e um filme esteticamente imaculado com um guião pedestre, no qual toda a gente só faz disparates. Certo: em Alien também há asneiras em barda, mas a tripulação da Nostromo não era composta por cientistas, mas por camionistas. E para lá das desventuras da tripulação em Prometheus, Ridley Scott - demonstrando que nunca é boa ideia regressarmos aos sítios onde fomos felizes -  pareceu desaprende a lição do filme original, e decide explorar as origens do space jockey e do xenomorph. Desnecessário, tão desnecessário, mas o pior ainda estava para vir com Alien: Covenant, quando Scott decide dizer que afinal aquela criatura foi obra de um andróide paranóico com complexo de Édipo e ilusões de grandeza. Assim se dá cabo de um belo mistério.Enfim, não estou particularmente entusiasmado com Alien: Romulus. É certo que não se trata de uma sequela, mas de uma história que, no contínuo narrativo, passar-se-á entre os acontecimentos de Alien e Aliens (enquanto Ripley e Jones andavam à deriva no espaço, portanto), mas o trailer não dá grande indicação de que possa haver aqui novo chão para pisar - parece-me um mero slasher naquele universo, ainda que com facehuggers muito irrequietos. Dito isto, é muito provável que o vá ver ao cinema, mais por diligência pessoal para com o cinema de ficção científica, e com expectativas baixas. E com a sensação de que se talvez fosse mais interessante ir buscar outra história de ficção científica e horror para o grande ecrã. Por exemplo, Dead Space. Até porque algumas das imagens do trailer fizeram-me pensar mais na USG Ishimura do que na Nostromo, na Sulaco ou na colónia LV-426...

#cinema #ficção científica #horror #alien #Youtube

[thebestpersonherelovesbucky]

The Alien Franchise is currently streaming on Hulu. Super exciting for me because I love Alien/s and it’s never streaming anywhere, and I don’t own it, which I should probably remedy. Since it’s available now, I’ve watched Alien and Aliens several times. Great movies, imho. I honestly think, for its genre, Alien is a near perfect movie. 

Alien, written by Dan O’Bannon and directed by Ridley Scott, in 1979, has seven characters in it, two of which are female, both of which are treated respectfully, are competent characters, and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is probably one of the most badass female characters in movie history. She has zero combat training whatsoever, is simply a flight officer for a commercial mission for “The Company”, and no one listens to her until it’s too late, and she’s the only one to survive (and the cat). 

Aliens, written and directed by James Cameron, in 1986, has a much larger cast which, in addition to the return of Ellen Ripley, includes a group of hardcore Marines. There are three female Marines. All three of them are smart, capable, and treated as equals to their male counterparts. There’s also a little girl, Newt, who is in the 3rd grade, which puts her at approximately eight or nine years old, who has survived hiding from the Xenomorphs (the aliens) on her own for weeks. Mostly everyone dies again, of course, but those who survive do so because of Ripley and Newt. 

Can’t bring up Aliens 3 because I’ve only seen it once and that was years ago, and it completely ruins the end of Aliens and just wasn’t a good movie, so I have zero reason to rewatch it.

Alien Resurrection isn’t a good movie either, but I did put it on just to show my kid Winona Ryder in it. I had the movie on for approximately eighteen minutes. In those eighteen minutes, we see Ellen Ripley naked in a test tube, Ripley being treated like an object/incompetent child, Winona Ryder’s character being treated like shit, the other random chick being objectified and exposed to disgusting misogynistic attitudes, and several rape jokes are made. 

And who was Alien Resurrection, made in 1997, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by?

If you guessed Joss Whedon, you’d be 100% correct. 

#my stuff #you can't make this shit up #i laughed so hard when i saw he wrote it