Horror always benefits from the unknown, the human brain has a magical way of filling in empty space with nightmares more terrible than anything any artist can commit to screen. So when a franchise feels the need to explain every detail and answer every question, the story loses what made it special, and fans both new and old get tangled in needless detail.
1979’sAlienis perfect in its simplicity, trapped in a pressurized cage in the depths of space with an unstoppable hostile creature is the kind of horror story that requires no exposition.Not until 2012’sPrometheusdid filmmakers feel the need to really dig into the deeper mythos behind the acid-blooded monstrosity.
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Chronologically, theAlienseries continuity begins sometime before the birth of the human race. An alien species of protohumans once existed on a distant planet. Nicknamed the Engineers, this ancient race made their way to Earth and laid the building blocks for what would, millennia later, become humanity. Even more millennia later, the Engineers, having made homes on a number of planets,plan an expedition back to Earth. Their apparent intent is to reverse course and wipe their creation back into the aether from which they came. Fortunately for humans, the Engineers sent to end us are foiled by a disastrous blowback of their own weapon; the black goo.
The origins of the black goo are unknown, but what is known is that it serves as both a mutagen that can create new life and a pathogen that can destroy populations in moments. The Engineers intended to use the black goo on the human race to obliterate most and transform those who survived. Something went wrong, forcing the Engineers into hypersleep pods, but only one managed to survive their long rest. This mistake allowed humanity to continue and to grow outward, and thousands of years later,they would take to the cosmosand discover their creators.
Once humans achieved deep space travel, they began the process of seeking out and terraforming other planets to replace the Earth they’ve since ruined. Around the same time,a comically unethical company called Weyland Corpcreated incredibly advanced human-like androids, the first of which was named David. David accompanied a crew of scientists to the planet LV-233, the gravesite of the Engineers, and discovered their plans alongside the black goo. David would then go on to bombard a society of Engineers with their own black goo and spend over a decade experimenting with its transformative properties. David set his sights on the development of the perfect life form, sacrificing countless lives to his cause.
All of this is backstory to explain, in whole or in part, the existence ofthe series' iconic Xenomorph, which it still has not fully done. The original film delivered exposition in a slightly different manner, through breathtaking design and brilliant environmental storytelling. When Dallas, Lambert, and Kane discover the clutch of eggs that eventually unleash their horrid fate, they do so inside a derelict spaceship. Inside, they find a massive skeleton at the helm of a futuristic weapon, surrounded on all sides by the grotesque eggs. The being was then referred to as the Space Jockey, but modern fans would recognize it as an Engineer, having suffered a similar fate to that of the crew sent to wipe out humanity.
The inscrutable design, the haunting fog, the sheer scale,every detail of the scenetells a story and sets a mood. 1979’sAlienaccomplished in one scene more than the two prequel films could manage in a little over four hours total. The lore of the franchise is not impossible to follow; in fact, it’s very interesting and well worth diving into, but the fact that it serves only to add questions makes it a challenging thing to care about. New fans might find onboarding a little difficult when watching the newer films actually leaves them less sure of what is going on. BothAlienand its sequelAliensare so well contained that trying to dig too deep was only ever going to add problems.
Lore is important, it adds depth to a story’s universe, answers fans' burning questions, and createsendless directions a narrative can take, both in past and future. Surely fans did not need theAlienseries to remain one space crew after another devoured by the acid-blooded monster of the week to stay invested. Adding in more concepts and tying up a few loose ends could have opened up opportunities for wildly different stories using the franchise’s iconography. Yet, the series remains mostly retreads of the original film, now with endless complex lore to bog down the runtime. The modern films in the franchise suffer as they fail to create the human drama of their predecessors, in large part because that screentime is given over to backstory and vague suggestions towards questions better off unanswered.
The measure of a narrative’s internal mythology must be what it adds to a story, measured against what it takes away.Alien’s mythos adds a few fun details and intriguing concepts, but at the cost of much of what made the early films great.
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