Yes... Excellent observations, Jonesome!Jonesome wrote:The first "Alien" is really nothing like the common AvP lore, as it was before the concept of things like Weyland Yutani (in the first film they are known only as 'The Company').
The Alien was also different in the first one, it was more of a sexual deviant that seemed to almost rape its victims, and there was no need for a Queen: the alien was able to reproduce on its own by transforming its captured hosts into eggs.
The first film is its own canon, and the only game that really follows it is Alien Isolation.
If you want to get into the atmospheres of CM and roleplay better, watch Aliens, Alien3, Predator, and then play the AvP games. Start with Aliens vs Predator 1999, then Aliens vs Predator 2 (2001), and maybe AvP Extinction if you can find it.
The first movie was actually a lot more influenced by H.R. Giger, the creature's design creator, hence the xenomorph being characterized as a "sexual deviant" as you noticed.
Giger's main idea was actually "an alien monster that would abuse, exploit and literally probe you to death" in every sense, from it's infant phase to the adult stage, being the incarnation of not just "death" - but death caused by the most horrendous, gruesome and humiliating methods.
Not "just another slasher or carnivorous", but a monster for creating fear out of our instincts and also views on reproduction and sexuality.
While the director was quite the "good cop" in the team, who got the idea a lot "toned down" - specially for getting this creation past the censorship...
For example?
Some people got horrified by a certain game, where the xenomorph execute humans by impaling them. (Third scene in the clip following.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilE1sKcE2bE
But the first movie is actually the very first instance where a xenomorph impales someone with it's tail. Only the scene was far less explicit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZbcLIXhyxA
(EDIT) And here, another interesting sequence, from the first movie, where excluded footage was re-added in a fan edit... So here you can see how originally it was even far more explicit. (But still toned down.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFiLVrux4V8
But if you ever search for Giger's art in google, including art related to the xenomorph and facehugger origins, you can get a better picture of his intentions.
And the xenomorph transforming still alive people into eggs was actually a very scary concept.
Another exploitative death, where you are used by the creature for it's reproduction.
Also a lot related to some of Giger's paintings where you can see people "converted" into something scary and biomechanic.
But...
One of the first movie's merits, in my opinion, is that they had planned scenes with the xenomorph scavenging for food and a lot of written details in it's physiology - including the actual ways a xenomorph can transform inorganic and organic matter into resin.
Most of this didn't went into the movie. - Leaving a lot of lore and plot holes everywhere.
(Side by side with the absurd fandom supported idea that "a xenomorph don't need sustenance or bio-matter for growing up and nourishing itself". Like if they would have "magical" matter creating abilities or something.)
Originally? The idea is that both the facehugger and the adult xenomorph had the ability to melt through anything by selectively secreting different acidic substances through their skins, that are derived from the acidic blood.
While the adult xenomorph is like a "sculptor" and can transform what is around him into an habitat better suiting it's needs. (Even people.)
If you observe closely... You will notice that most depictions of the nests and places inhabited by them have patterns in it, that closely resemble the xenomorphs. (It's still the idea that xenomorphs can transform what is around them, but by pressing themselves into resin.)
While in the first movie, the nest - with people getting turned into eggs - looked much more like something "sculpted" from the spaceship's materials. By looking closely, you can notice pipes and other elements turned into resin.
This is how the facehugger attached itself over a spacesuit and melted in through the helmet's glass.
And also how the adult xenomorph could reach anywhere in the ship - and reshape part of the ship into a resinous nest as seen in some parts of the deleted scenes.
This idea actually would make the xenomorphs even more frightening.
"You simply can't stop them from gaining access... Given enough time, they can just melt their ways in."
Queen however was only introduced in the second movie.
But also in the second movie, the formula was changed from survival horror movie to combat action.
- Those are much more fast paced and intense in confrontation scenes, but with less opportunities to go deep in details about the creature, monster, mutant or whatever is the antagonist.
