Because This Film and its monster designs were mentioned in the feedback in my survey, I thought it prudent to Watch the film and look into the designs further, attempting to understand them and there relation to insects. To do this I started off by watching the two videos below, which gave an invaluable insight into how the designs were achieved. The main player in these designs was Hans Giger, he drew a large amount from the insect world not only in the designs but in the animation of the creatures, the way that the moved and hunted, embuing them with a beauty and grace in their complexity. Possibly the reason for our fear of insects can be found in their complex structure that seems beyond our ken. The film its self was terrifying and, the insectile characteristics left aside, it was a scary no matter what shape the alien was. The fact that it was insectile though could be said to play off an existing fear and foster it to greater heights of intensity.
Another piece of footage I found was of the actor playing the alien in the original dil practicing the movements. Follow the link to see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6MZLNN-Zg0.
The movements are at once slow and thoughtful with a great sense of spacial awareness which makes him seem above the clumsiness of humans. There are touches of the animalistic in the way that it crouches but also a sense of tension in the slow movements like a coiled spring, the sense that fast deadly and direct movement is on the horizon. Could it be this precision of movement which makes insects so scary, do they seem almost robotic and cold because of it, devoid of all relatable things.
Stages of the Alien:
The scales exoskeleton structure is definitely of insectile origins, as are the way the joints work and the thin delicate limbs that seem to need no support. In rider to gain a greater understanding of these designs I have done a couple of quick sketches. Mostly what i found was the fractures nature of the design, the exoskeleton separated into may independent parts, also the almost mechanical organic nature of the design surprised me. This is possibly something to look into during my research at the natural history museum by attempting to understand the different structures of insects and how they function.
A clear relation between these designs and insects is the idea of metamorphosis, the way that they can constantly change to become stronger better versions of themselves. This could be said to relate to the idea that insects form part of our evolutionary past. Could this suggest a fear we have of reverting to a more animalistic past? However, I think that there is something in the fact that we use insectile features to create Aliens. They are other, unknown and supposedly completely separate from ourselves. They seem so different and difficult to understand.
There is a definite similarity between the 'chest buster' alien and the larvae stage of many insects. They are both softer versions of their elder selves and have a lot of changes to make before they reach their maturity. The use of vertebrae in both the aliens above and below suggests a hybrid between mammals and insects. Once again this could be a throw back to our evolutionary relationship with them.
The 'face hugger' alien bares the most resemblance to an arachnid like structure, once again mixed with the vertebrae of a mammal. The eight fingers is clearly making use of the widespread fear of spiders. There is also a clear use of ancient shapes in this design including the trilobite.
It seems that fear is create not only by playing off existing pools but by mixing species to create something that not only reminds us of things that we fear but also the sense of an ungodly abomination that was somehow not meant to exist. In conclusion it seem that the fear of insects, in this media, goes through two routes; one, our ancestral link with them is somehow disgusting and repulsive and two, they are strange and unknown and the unknown is dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment