I remember when I was younger, anytime I watched a movie where the characters have to kill a scary monster/alien, I always thought the act of killing it was intended to be part of the horror. Like there’s this amazing creature that we’ve never seen before, and maybe under different circumstances we could’ve coexisted with it, but it’s trying to attack you and you have to defend yourself, but by destroying it you also destroy the ability to ever understand it and that’s sad and is supposed to make you feel conflicted.
It was not until well into my adulthood that I realized most people do not have complicated feelings about movies where people have to kill a scary alien monster, nor is that necessarily meant to be part of the narrative (unless it very obviously is). They just want the scary thing to die because it’s scary. I don’t have a real conclusion to this I just started thinking about it for some reason.
I always felt I couldn't possibly be upset about dying to an alien monster because proof of otherwordly life is exactly what it'd take for me to die happy
Just watched a Youtube essay about the 'Alien' franchise ("Why Weyland-Yutani Wanted the Xenomorph So Badly") that argues that Ripley's quest is not just against Evil or Capitalism, but ultimately against the very impulse to Get The Alien.
She might be "morally correct" through and through, but the uncomfortable truth is that her goodness is about closing a door forever. She wants to kill the predatory alien body horror pregnancy brood parasite and for humanity to keep it as far away as fucking possible. She doesn't care about what secrets it holds or whatever could be gained or learned from capturing it, she cares about the immediate and horrific harm it does to human beings.
And again, as the essay argues, that IS objectively good of her. But if we accept that, we also have to accept that there is such a thing as a categorical No when it comes to exploring the universe and other lifeforms in particular. You don't capture the alien, you don't study it, you don't even LOOK at it, you JUST kill it, is the idea. Can you agree with the hero, and disagree with the evil corporation, as HARD as you should? And if you can, can you appreciate the tragedy of having to close that door forever?
