Jasha Karasek

Prof. C. Tsuyuki
Eng 202
05/12/2012
They Come for War
Night time is descending over the continental United States, and a young boy is preparing
himself for bed. His mother kisses him goodnight, and the last rays of light from the hallway
slowly disappear as she closes the door. The boy cannot help but dart his eyes across the dark
room at the moving shadows from the trees outside, blowing in the wind. He knows that inside
of his dark closet there is a ominous figure waiting to come forth and descend upon him when he
falls asleep. Now images of the clawed creature plague his mind, as he lies in bed awake all
night, wondering when the alien will strike. If only he hadn't watched that scary alien movie at
his friends house, he would have been able to sleep. Is it the large dark eyes, or the bulging
exposed brain that makes aliens such frightening creatures? Maybe its the dark-green horned
exoskeleton, or dripping drool covered fangs that creep people out. Movies like The War of the
Worlds, Independence Day, and Battlefield L.A show aliens as apocalyptic creatures that desire
nothing but to exterminate the human race. Other series such as Alien, Predator, and Starship
Troopers show aliens as slimy, bug-like beings with vicious intentions. Why do films repeatedly
project aliens in this manner? It is human's inherent fear of the unknown that drives most of
these projections, and when the potential threat of an extraterrestrial arrives it always delivers
harm. Movies tend to demonize aliens, and the effect of this phenomenon is a fearful American
society.
From the very beginning of special effects in film, to the computer generated graphics of

modern movies, aliens have been repeatedly shown as vicious creatures. The earliest example of
this was seen in George Melies A Trip to the Moon, in which the first astronauts to land on the
moon and discover a civilization of cave dwelling extraterrestrials. Even though the film is silent
and in black and white, lacking any visual effects, the aliens are still clearly depicted as brutish
creatures. For instance, the aliens are discovered in a dark cave, which clearly points to their
creepy nature. In addition to this, the alien acts in a very irrational manner as it flails its arms in
the air, and walks on its hands and feet. This short film was created in 1902, and was the earliest
example of aliens shown in film. At this point in time, the idea of aliens was fresh to society, so
the aliens would be depicted as the director saw fit. Melies likely chose to depict these aliens as
belligerent to increase the drama and excitement of his already silent, black and white film. It is
undecided whether this example of brutish aliens was the source for the repeated depictions of
aliens, or whether it was simply the earliest example of it. More importantly, without knowing
anything about the nature of extraterrestrials, Melies presumed they were hostile, mindless
beings that would attack outsiders without consideration. A similar, but more developed plot is
seen in the 1979 blockbuster Alien, which shows extraterrestrials as incredibly dark and
vicious creatures. In this movie, aliens have large elongated bulbous heads, with fangs that drip
saliva from them. The creatures have no eyes, and secrete clear slime from their skeletal bodies
as they hunt frightened humans throughout the movie. For the astronauts in this movie, aliens
represent a much more serious threat than the aliens in Melies movie. Both movies present aliens
as threatening, mindless creatures at the point of human contact. In both cases, humans are
visiting the location in which the aliens live and thrive. It is presumed then, that if humans are to
discover or encounter aliens on another planet, that the humans would be peaceful and
inquisitive, where the aliens would be vicious and hostile. In the alien movies where human's

have the technology to visit another planet, they are not the instigators of destruction. However
when the story is reversed, aliens visitors are still depicted as evil and destructive.
A slightly more evolved, yet still negative example of alien movies, shows aliens as
deceptive masterminds with harmful intentions. In The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, aliens
steal human bodies and absorb their minds and souls to eventually take over the world. This
threatens a different part of the human psyche. Instead of instigating fear of death, the movie
aims to show that aliens can fool or deceive humans by stealing their image and persona.
Interestingly this movie was released in America during the height of the cold war and the great
red scare. Discovery of Russian spies living amongst the American people lead to extreme
paranoia among the government and the people of America. It is no surprise that a horror movie
during this period of time would mirror this kind of public scare. Aliens served as the perfect
vehicle to carry out this task, because like the russians, aliens were mysterious to the American
people and presented a possible threat to the Americans way of life. In another example more
recent example, The Arrival depicts aliens in the same deceptive and evil image. In this movie,
aliens disguise themselves as humans and covertly run an operation to heat up the earths
atmosphere to a higher temperature, which would eventually kill all human life. This movie also
takes place at an interesting period of time in which environmental changes like global warming
were being discovered. It seems that aliens are depicted as the source of problems that occur
during the era that they are released. The alien icon has been reformed and remade over and over
again as human problems evolve with each new era.