Crazy 'Alien' Facepaint Turns Humans Into Xenomorphs
05/17/2017 07:28 pm EDT
We're only days away from an all-new Alien film hitting theaters, making excitement and anticipation for the franchise at the highest levels it's been since the release of Prometheus. Fans have a variety of ways of showing their devotion to the film, with one makeup artists embarking on an attempt to recreate the look of the franchise's terrifying xenomorph aliens with just makeup. Check out the video below to see how he pulled the look off!
The look achieved in the video is impressive, as it has taken multiple different methods to bring the monstrous creations to life over the years.
In 1978's Alien, a 6'10" Nigerian by the name of Bolaji Badejo wore the suit, as his slender frame and massive height closely resembled the skeletal frame of the beast. Initially, the filmmakers considered using stunt performers to help convey the physicality needed, but they were often too muscular and bulky to pull off the necessary H.R. Giger-inspired look.
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The head of the xenomorph required puppetry mechanics to pull off necessary movements, but even when Badejo took the head off, people were still intimidated by him. The actor reportedly had a calm and quiet demeanor, but due to the length of the suit's tail, he wasn't able to sit down. This resulted in much of his time on set spent standing around the rest of the cast, until a special swing was developed for him to accommodate the suit. However, director Ridley Scott did dissuade Badejo from spending too much time with the cast so the director could capture genuine, fearful reactions for the actors.
As advancements in CGI progressed, future Alien films could showcase many more aspects of the creatures, with Alien: Resurrection even showing a scene in which the creatures swim. The upcoming Alien: Covenant also features heavy use of CGI, allowing the creature to cling to the side of ships without putting any actors in danger.
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Alien: Covenant takes place before the original Alien but after Prometheus, allowing Scott to make some interesting changes the the universe's timeline. Prometheus was met with criticism from die-hard Alien fans, claiming that it didn't connect closely enough to the original films. Scott claims he attempted to get back to the survivalist horror roots of the original film with Covenant, but we have to wait a few more days to see if fans connect more strongly with this angle.
[H/T YouTube, Chris Alex MUA]
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