I have to confess something. While there are few things I find as devilishly entertaining as a good horror movie, I’m also a coward.
This may not be surprising, but for me, watching horror films is a strange experience. I love the ecstasy of a good scare, but dread the necessary torture of increasing tension and thrills.
When I watch something like Longlegs, MaXXXine, or even sci-fi movies like A Quiet Place: Day One, it’s a bit like releasing the Lament Configuration for me; I know I’m about to torture myself, but in the back of my mind I want the joy of that pain.
So imagine my horror (and secret delight) when I had to go to the premiere of Alien: Romulus alone. I had every reason to be afraid. Romulus may be a cover version of other (better) Alien films, but at the dark heart of the film lies an evil and strange embryo that emerges after the first hour and quickly develops into something tremendously exciting.
In space, no one can hear your screams…
It wasn’t the Xenomorph that made an impression on me, though (I don’t think they’ve been scary since James Cameron revealed their secret weakness to bullets). It was a far more disturbing creature that appeared on screen in Romulus’ final moments and inspired that evening’s nightmares.
(Security Breach Warning: This article contains unknown spoilers.)
An unholy fusion of Engineer, Xenomorph, and human, The Offspring is one of the most disturbing monsters I’ve ever seen on screen. This albino abomination looks like the end result of a one-night stand between the Slender Man and a Xenomorph after things got wild at the annual movie monster convention.
It’s truly disgusting, and every time it was on screen I was repulsed. I haven’t seen such a convincing creature since Pennywise (we can argue about the quality of the IT movies, but I won’t hear a word against Bill Skargsgard’s iconic clown), and it triggered me in ways I really wasn’t expecting.
It’s a healthy baby… thing!
20th Century StudiosMuch of this unease stemmed not from the creature’s eerie appearance—although if it were located in the Uncanny Valley, it would be at about the same depth as the Mariana Trench—but from what the creature represented that horrified me.
Like the titular aliens, the Offspring plays on our fears of sexual violence and childbirth. However, unlike the Xenomorph, which transforms the metaphorically monstrous into something more abstract and… alien-like (for lack of a better word), the Offspring looks much more human… or what a human might look like if Hieronymus Bosch tried.
It’s a powerful reminder that real-life violence isn’t perpetrated by creatures with fangs and acidic blood, but by people who look like you and me. And while some will argue that the deconstruction of Scott’s original metaphor isn’t as clever as I think it is, I found it to be tremendously effective.
Maybe it played a role in my fear of parenthood—the offspring tearing itself out of a woman’s womb like some science fiction version of the Antichrist—but the way the creature sought out its mother so soon after its birth, and its need to feed on her, gave me what a doctor would call goosebumps.
The idea of taking something as pure as breastfeeding one’s child and turning it into something that literally drips with the potential for violence and highlights the discomfort some people feel around maternal intimacy was a stroke of genius. Even though we don’t see the offspring literally breastfeed (I felt the firm hand of a cautious editor in the crucial moments of Romulus’ ending), it’s clear that this is exactly what director Fede Alvarez intended.
A cautionary tale
20th Century Fox“Alien: Earth” marks the IP’s first jump to the big screen.
Furthermore, the offspring represent fears for the future of our species. Prometheus fans will remember that Weyland began this whole endeavor because he feared the ultimate fate of humanity (and his own life) in the face of a dangerous galaxy. It’s a legitimate concern, and very fitting given the interesting period of human history we’re living through.
The creation of the Descendant, then, shows how our attempts to fight the future can be our own undoing. It is a bastardization of Weyland’s dream of immortality. The Descendant may be the ultimate survivor, a perfect organism, as we are constantly reminded, but it was born in blood and screams.
The Offspring exist only to kill and survive. That is not humanity; it is our animalistic, dark instincts in flesh and blood. No, humanity is the bond that keeps our heroes coming back for each other; it is the ability to sacrifice for the hope of a better tomorrow, the dream that one day we will see the sun together. The Offspring has none of that; it is simply monstrous.
Ultimately, The Offspring serves as a reminder that true horror comes not from the stars or strange alien egg sacs, but from within us, just beneath our rib cages. So as I left the theater, ever so slightly shaking, the image of that terrifying newborn was seared into my brain. I knew I would leave the bedroom light on that night, a banal beacon for the terrifying delights of Alien: Romulus.
If you’ve gotten bored of me admiring this particular abomination, I don’t blame you. Why not take a break from this cheesiest of franchises by checking out our lists of the best superhero movies and best action movies (oh wait, no, that one has the Xenomorphs on it… oops).
