Alien: Covenant Will be the Goriest Alien Yet

In space, no one can hear a Neomorph bursting out of your spine.

By Lucy O'Brien

“We got through a few gallons of blood,” says Neil Corbould,  Special Visual Effects Supervisor on Alien: Covenant. “A few litres.”

“Everyone has their own little recipe and they won't tell anyone else, and ours is just basically cornstarch and food colouring, and that's it”

During our visit to the Sydney set, we are told time and time again that Alien: Covenant is the “bloodiest film” the crew has ever worked on (and Creatures Supervisor Conor O’Sullivan worked on Saving Private Ryan).

“It's just about getting the colour right, because each camera picks up different colours”, continues Corbould. “They're very subtle, but sometimes it can look silly. It can look too red or too dark. It's just about getting the right colour pattern right. We got this stand-in that came in for the day., had no idea that she was going to be covered in blood. She nearly fainted once. We said it's not real; it's just corn syrup. That was... quite funny.”

The recent financial success of a handful of R-rated movies - Deadpool and The Revenant come to mind - has given the Alien: Covenant crew some heart that the film’s rating won’t isolate it, and it’s a rating they’re hitting hard.  The footage IGN saw at a later press event featured black vomit, bodies in flames, Neomorphs bursting from spines and mouths, and yes, an enormous amount of cornstarch and red food colouring.

“We're trying to make it as realistic as possible because that's what Ridley wants. He wants the shock factor. We're going all out for that. From the stuff I've seen, it looks fantastic. I think it's going to have a similar impact of what the original "Alien" did, because that was quite shocking when everyone saw that. It's a true horror movie and I think that's what this is going to be like.”

Katherine Waterston, who plays protagonist Daniels, says she is regularly thrown by said realism, particularly when confronted by a meticulously crafted creation from the creatures department. “It’s legitimately freaky a lot of the stuff that’s in this film,” says the actress. “I’ve had these amazing moments when I’ve walked past my trailer and seen my friend’s head on a stick. So there have been times when I’ve thought it was the actor in front of me when it was a bean bag body with a perfect face. That’s actually one of the most chilling things to witness - is your friends all...damaged.”

Corbould is very aware that audience’s tolerance for gore has gone up since the original - these days it’s rare for ushers to faint and movie-goers to vomit in theatres as some did, infamously, at a preview for Alien in 1979 - but believes Scott’s love of practical effects will go a long way in Covenant. “It does take a lot more to shock people,” he says, “particularly thanks to video games. But they are games and this is real. This is a film and Ridley, he loves to do things in camera, so the more we can do ... He doesn't like CG blood. He doesn't like CG effects. He likes it to complement the work that we do and to do set extensions, but he loves realism. He wants a real alien running around the spaceship and stuff like that.”

For more on Alien: Covenant, here are 4 things you need to know about the film.

Lucy O'Brien is an editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.

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