The Alien films make up one of the greatest science fiction horror franchises of all time and, if you’re a fan, that's not hyperbole, it’s just truth. So to celebrate its greatness, Alien fans come together once a year on April 26 to binge-watch, tweet, and enjoy the movies on what's known as Alien Day.
Alien fans have an endless love for the franchise, as some can defend each movie (even the controversial Prometheus) until they're blue in the face. Many others love to have much fun on social media, playing around with its unique mythology. This is especially when it comes to those misunderstood facehuggers, as seen below:
There’s a good reason so many fans love this franchise. It touches on every aspect of the horror genre, from the terror of Xenomorphs stalking their human prey in a closed environment to the total gross-out factor of being impregnated by a facehugger and having its offspring burst through your chest. The latter has been parodied multiple times, even by the Muppets in the Pigs in Space sketch:
While celebrating the day, may have linked a famous Ellen Ripley quote to what's currently going on now, and it's hard to argue with the iconic character's thoughts:
Alien Day was first started by Dark Horse Comics in 2009 as a one-off event. However, 20th Century Fox later revived the promotion on April 26th, 2016 as an annual event, attempting to get fans to rekindle their love and enjoy even more additions to the franchise. The day's date is a reference to the name of the moon on which the first Aliens is set – LV-426.
Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, was first released in theaters over forty years ago in 1979. Using the brilliant, imaginative, and frankly terrifying art work by H.R. Giger, Alien became a critical and financial success, launching numerous sequels and prequels in the years to come. Although he would take a decades-long break from the franchise, Ridley Scott would return to helm the more recent installments, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are part of the prequel trilogy Ridley Scott always intended to create, with the last movie, tentatively entitled Alien: Awakening, intended to be directly link to the original 1979 film. However, since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, it’s currently unknown what will become of Ridley Scott's Alien prequels. As film pundit Scott Wampler pointed out, it’s not easy being a Xenomorph:
However, if this year’s rabid participation of Alien Day is any indication, the state of the Alien franchise is strong. It may only be a matter of time before another movie is released, but whether or not that’ll be Ridley Scott’s vision or a totally rebooted version is yet to be seen. Still, until that time comes, we'll just have to keep revisiting the old movies with total abandon.
