The acidic salivating of the Xenomorph is one of the creepiest parts of the Alien franchise, and Alien: Romulus took it very seriously.

In a new exclusive video clip, above, the film’s legacy effects and animatronic puppeteering team lay out the challenges of making the creature in the new film consistent with the creatures of the past — while using the best technology available to make them seem alive, and of course, terrifying.

Shane Mahan, legacy effects supervisor and animatronic puppeteer, recalled how on James Cameron’s Aliens, the second film in the series, “we were constantly putting drool and slime on the mouth, and with gravity, it runs away.”

So for the new film, he explains, “Diego was tasked with making a drooling mechanism.”

Also Read: The 10 Highest-Grossing Horror Movies of the 2020s

Diego is Diego Porqueras, a legacy effects electronics department and animatronics puppeteer who devised a modern solution to the drool problem.

“It’s just these pumps, and I added some wireless contrrols to it. We could hide it anywhere… and pump drool on demand,” he says in the video.

Alien: Romulus on Practical Xenomorph Effects

The new film follows Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson) as they join a desperate mission to a derelict spacecraft in hopes of escaping their dying, mineral-stripped planet. But —wouldn’t you know it — the spacecraft is crawling with aliens.

The film is the top-grossing horror movie of this decade, and has earned more than $340 million globally.

Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez notes that the xenomorphs “represent chaos on many levels” because “something you can not talk with or negotiate with is always the most terrifying thing.”

But the creatures also have human qualities — curiosity, maternal instincts, capacity for rage — that feel very human.

Also Read: ‘Make Alien Scary Again’ — Fede Alverez and Cailee Spaeny on the Terrors of Alien: Romulus (Cover Story)

While a lesser franchise might settle for CGI creatures, the new film relied heavily on practical effects, including the drool pump. The film’s stars appreciated the extra effort.

“To be able to react to the actual creatures, one part of me is like squealing with joy, because you really don’t see that on a lot of sets anymore,” says Spaeny in the video.

Cailee Spaeny on ‘a Place of Absolute Fear’

The cover of MovieMaker’s summer 2024 issue, featuring Fede Alvarez and Cailee Spaeny.

In our cover story on Alien: Romulus, Spaeny recounted how Alvarez kept his actors on their toes throughout the shoot.

“He would do sneak attacks without telling us or keep a scene rolling for 10 minutes and keep me in a place of absolute fear,” Spaeny said in the story. “It really does a number on you after shooting for six months. … He made sure that we saw sets and the aliens for the first time when we were filming.”

“Honestly, some of the animatronics were so scary that no acting was required,” Jonsson added. “Fede knows how to make a set that feels terrifying because all of it is practical and real. The movie is all the better for it.”

Stan Winston Studios worked on Aliens, and many of Winston’s colleagues returned to work on the new film. 

“I really had to stop myself from getting giddy over these creatures because they’re so artful and beautiful in a weird way,” Spaeny explained. “It was amazing to meet the team behind these creatures. A lot of people were going up to take selfies with the Xenomorph, and I had to go, ‘No, that’s my scene partner.’”

Memories

Spaeny also recalls watching the first film in the franchise — director Ridley Scott’s revered 1979 original, starring Sigourney Weaver — as a child.

“My dad and siblings decided they were going to watch and I thought I was going to join in,” she said in the cover story. “And then I went, oh no, this is going to be really scary. I left the room but I peeked in. I couldn’t sit through horror films when I was younger. I’d have terrible nightmares. But I do remember the chestburster scene and being like, I can’t. This is too brutal — but then also being curious and wanting to know what happens at the end.”

Alvarez also recalls his memories of seeing the original film for the first time.

 “I was probably ten years old and I had never seen something like that. It was truly terrifying and also it was so fascinating to be scared of it. You don’t really see the alien, you just get a couple of glimpses of it. You’re terrified of this presence because those two images they gave you are the thing of nightmares,” he told MovieMaker.

Alien: Romulus arrives on digital (Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home) on October 15 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on December 3.

Main image courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.