Alien

The Alien series began in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s original and continued shortly after with James Cameron’s sequel in 1986. The films speculate on the presence of alien life on another planet, and while these posters cover the same storyline and the same themes, they use different techniques of rendering the alien: one more strikingly maternal and one more jarring and masculine. These portrayals represent contrasting ways of defining monstrosity and eliciting fear. 

The poster on the left is minimalist overall, and it offers a certain degree of mystery with an image of a single egg that is slight cracked. The egg does not reveal the slightest trace of the alien's apperance, apart from the ambiguous green mist seeping out of the crack. I would argue that this poster presents an innately maternal image of the alien, given the presence of the egg. Despite the fact that neither mother nor child is visually present in the poster, the singularity of the egg demonstrates this idea vividly. There have been reams of feminist theories on this film series in particular, and in Stephen Scoobie’s article, “What’s the Story, Mother?” he perfectly characterizes themes of matriarchy in the film. He writes, “This image of the mother as the object of fear, horror, awe, or dreadful fascination is focussed primarily on the Alien herself, especially the Queen Alien of the second film: her "voracious maw," her "mysterious black hole"(Creed 136). "Ripley's foe," writes Lynda K Buntzen, "is a primal mother defined solely by her devouring jaws and her prolific egg-production" (12).” (82). Could we then argue that this poster reveals notions of the monstrous feminine?

On the other hand, the poster on the right, taken from James Cameron’s 1986 sequel departs significantly from the maternal visualization on the left. The alien is pictured facing forward, and its distinct jawline, characteristic of males, combined with the harsh angles suggests a more patriarchal interpretation of the alien. The departure from the maternal could be the director’s preference, but it clearly demonstrates the ways in which visual perspective might re-characterize the fear of the alien perhaps as less a fear of the monstrous feminine, but rather a fear of masculine power and dominance.  This portrayal might also be more likely to appeal to popular culture, in that its vicious and technologically-advanced visage could be relevant for the fast-paced society we live in.


Scobie, Stephen. "What's the Story, Mother?: The Mourning of the Alien." Science Fiction Studies 20.1 (1993): 80-93. JSTOR. Web.