Movies
HORROR 101: The Origins of the Xenomorph
Welcome back to Horror Press’s Horror 101, a series of articles where we explain horror movie legends and their lore. For beginners, the confused, or just those who need a refresher, these articles are for you. Today we delve into an antagonist described as “the perfect organism” with a “structural perfection [that’s] matched only by its hostility”, the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. An alien species that’s oft imitated but never surpassed by its many pop culture counterparts, H.R. Giger’s iconic design evolved into a creature shrouded in as much mystery as its costume is in KY Jelly.
While the Alien franchise is quite sprawling, we will only look at the mainline Alien films for canonical explanations of all our questions. As much as I’d love to include the stellar Dark Horse comics and the Alien: Isolation game, we’ll have to touch on those another day.
So how did the Xenomorph come to be, and what exactly is it? Let’s find out.
WHAT ARE XENOMORPHS?
Depending on who you ask, they’re either the worst or greatest thing to happen to the galaxy at large. What the android Ash calls “A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality”, the Xenomorph is driven only by primal instincts to kill and reproduce at high speeds.
The xenomorph is the byproduct of a bioweapon called “the black liquid, ” or, more commonly by fans, the black goo. Through genetic experimentation, the xenomorph was engineered as a killing machine with peak agility and strength. Most xenomorphs stand around 6’10”, and sport an iconic, shiny black exoskeleton that grants them unbelievable durability.
Among its most distinctive features are a lack of eyes, a second set of inner jaws that can punch through reinforced glass and metal, and a bladed tail. Bright green acidic blood, capable of burning through almost anything, makes it borderline impossible to engage at close quarters without harming yourself.
HOW DO XENOMORPHS REPRODUCE?
Its most frightening and iconic quality, however, is its reproductive cycle.
When a living being approaches a xenomorph egg, a spiderlike “face-hugger” leaps out and attaches to living prey to implant an embryo orally. Within a matter of hours, the embryo develops into a self-sufficient juvenile alien that forcibly (and fatally) claws out through the torso of the victim, earning it the nickname “chest-burster”. It then grows into a fully-fledged drone, or a queen that produces more eggs.
Xenomorphs, by their nature are incredibly adaptive parasites, able to gestate in any living mammal that can sustain its egg. These xenomorphs will also take on the traits of their hosts; The Dragon from Alien 3 was spawned from an ox and was uniquely quadrupedal as a result.
WHO CREATED THE XENOMORPHS?
To get to the bottom of that, we need to explain the black goo and who made it!
WHAT IS THE BLACK GOO, AND WHO MADE IT?
Introduced posthumously in Alien, then later fully in Prometheus, the Engineers were an advanced alien species that seeded life on many planets, including the building blocks of human life on Earth. However, when the Engineers were unhappy with their creations, they would deploy a devastating planetary bioweapon to depopulate entire worlds of species that they deemed “mistakes”. This was the black goo.
Its most notable user is David, a malicious android made by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and modeled after founder Peter Weyland. He is also the predecessor of the androids Ash and Bishop from Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3, and a brother model to the android Walter from Alien: Covenant.
David studied the black goo extensively following his encounter with its creators in Prometheus and the subsequent attack on their homeworld (Planet 4) in Alien: Covenant. As per the short film Alien: Advent, his research claims that the black goo was made up of “advanced nano-particles” which he considered biomechanical artificial intelligence. Like a slime mold in motion, the black goo has some senses and intentionally seeks out organic targets; this is most evident in the bombing scene from Alien: Covenant, where it tears through crowds of Engineer civilians.
The black goo AI would model itself after natural evolutionary development, curate the genes most likely to succeed, then accelerate the process by mutating those traits instead of waiting for hundreds of generations to develop them. The resultant mutations would usually be too intense and liquefy their targets from the inside out.
The operative word is usually.
OKAY, THERE, NOW WHO CREATED THE XENOMORPHS?
David recognized the limitless potential of dynamic DNA that could rapidly mutate on command. He began to engineer the black goo with the insects and plant life that survived his attack on Planet 4.
In Alien: Advent David began using selective breeding to steer small amounts of the black goo into making him a species designed to expand across the galaxy, though most early attempts are failures. By the time of Alien: Covenant, he makes the dream a reality, and the first face-hugger eggs are made, resulting in the creation of a fully-fledged xenomorph (dubbed the Neomorph) via a human host. He later stored other eggs in a ship headed for Earth on behalf of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, but their fate is currently unknown.
However, David was not the only one to succeed in this. In Alien and Aliens, a separate vessel piloted by long-dead Engineers had crashed on the exoplanet LV-426, carrying similar fully formed eggs. One surviving egg spurs the events of the first film, while a dormant hive would cause chaos in the second. This would mean the Engineers also managed to create near-identical xenomorphs independent of David’s actions.
In short: The Engineers and David both used the black goo to make parallel versions of the xenomorphs, but there’s no reason why the xenomorphs couldn’t have sprung up on other worlds through the tampering of other species.
It’s also why I believe the Alien vs. Predator films are canon because the Yautja could have done the same process with their tech.
Let me believe.
I have to believe.
WHY DID DAVID MAKE THE XENOMORPHS?
David’s first encounter with an Engineer in the film Prometheus not only resulted in his head getting ripped off, but also broke his heart too.
Prometheus showed that the Engineer planned on destroying Earth after it was woken up from its slumber. When the failed Prometheus mission dissolved as a result, David became disillusioned. According to Ridley Scott, through having met his maker’s maker, he grew to resent both Engineers and Humans and sought to supplant them as creators. Hence, bombing Planet 4 and the subsequent xenomorph project.
WHY ARE THE XENOMORPHS SO BUGLIKE?
They’re wasps. Like, the bug, not protestants.
Outside of the obvious design inspiration insects serve for these often-hunted bugs, the first successful Xenomorph created by David was derived primarily from the wasps on the untitled Planet 4 that he bombed with the black goo. He called these insects the “shock troops of the genetic assault”, as they developed the features most similar to the face hugger, able to implant new parasitic offspring that would take on traits of the host.
This also explains why the xenomorphs make hives out of every place they dwell in, plastering the walls with organic insulation like a paper wasp would with dead plant material.
HOW DO YOU KILL A XENOMORPH?
Not to insult a fictional android, but David’s perfect galaxy-controlling weapon has a few blind spots.
Xenomorphs may not explicitly be anymore weak to fire than a human would be, but it is undoubtedly the only weapon that they’ll actively avoid contact with. Horror Hall of Famer and protagonist of the first four films, Ellen Ripley, uses a flamethrower against them to great effect. She also incinerates her first alien with the thruster of the Nostromo’s escape shuttle.
And despite how powerful they are on the outside, shots aimed inside the mouth, like Hicks’ messy shotgun blast from Aliens can bypass it. Explosives like the grenades in Alien: Resurrection, or enough gunfire from a pulse rifle can mulch them into green paste. Make sure not to step in said paste. And hey, if all else fails…
Netflix did not give me a lot to work with this month. I may have also zoomed through many of my favorite things on the platform these last few months. So, many of these are titles I have been meaning to check out, and I hope they are worth the wait. However, I cannot promise the carnage, chaos, and confusion I normally provide for this column. This means you’ll have to forgive me for having less razzle dazzle and a little more uncertainty while I list some stuff off the less beaten path. Gather around, and I’ll tell you what I am trying to get into this March!
Archive (2020)
In 20238, George Almore’s newest AI prototype is nearly complete. However, this humanesque machine is also hiding one of George’s secrets that must remain hidden. While I love some British sci-fi and believe we should watch as many of the 2020 movies that slid under our quarantined radar, I’m pulling up for another reason. I want to see Theo James in something that isn’t The Monkey. Literally. I didn’t enjoy that movie, and I seem to be the last person I know who was unfamiliar with James before that. So, I’m trying to rectify that and see what he can do in anything else. Hopefully, after catching this on Netflix, I will have a new movie that comes to mind when he is mentioned. Fingers crossed, friends!
Green Room (2016)
A punk rock band gets trapped in a venue where skinheads want to kill them. So many people have told me this movie is worth my time, but because it’s always too soon for violent racists in this decade, I keep putting it off. However, I am so curious to see what Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, and the late Anton Yelchin are doing in this movie. Green Room is also one of the few A24 horror movies that I have not seen, which makes it even more intriguing. While I doubt 2026 will calm down enough for this not feel too real, I think it’s time for me to be brave and cross this movie off my list already. So, I might have to grab a drink, a weighted blanket, and remote so I can open Netflix.
M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
Two years after M3GAN’s murder spree, she is rebuilt by her creator to take down a military-grade weapon made from her stolen tech. Is this movie as good as the original written by Akela Cooper? Obviously not. No one can do what Cooper does and we shouldn’t hold people to that very high bar. Is this movie way too damn long? Also, yes. However, was there still a lot of fun to be had along the way? I thought so. While M3GAN 2.0 isn’t the sequel we wanted, I’m happy to rewatch it for free at home. We lose a lot of the threads I loved in the first one, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t the new Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day anyway. In a perfect world, Akela Cooper will reopen the computer (after receiving a very large check from Blumhouse) and give us a third installment to bring our dancing diva back into the horror fold.
Life After Beth (2014)
A man discovers his dead girlfriend is back, and that might be for the worst. I never watched this horror comedy, but I’m sad and hoping Aubrey Plaza can change that. After all, if she can’t wake us up after a long winter, then who can? I also imagine Plaza as a zombie is kind of great. Along for the ride is Molly Shannon, so between the two of them, I expect some chuckles and guffaws. Maybe the powers that be at Netflix knew we could all use a laugh, and that’s why this is waiting for us on the other side of February. Or possibly they wanted to apologize for that last season of Stranger Things. Or maybe it’s just a wacky coincidence, and I’m looking for meaning where there is none. Either way, I have a date with this movie, and you might want to check it out too.
Teen Wolf (2011-2017)
Getting bitten by a werewolf turns life upside down for a high school student and his best friend. Hear me out! I doubt there is a world where I will watch all six seasons of this. Hell, I doubt I’ll even finish the first season. However, I skipped this MTV moment when it originally aired. Which is why I didn’t know who Dylan O’Brien was when Send Help was announced. So, I’m using this Netflix account to see where he started now that I have seen him in something. You can join me in this or mark your time as safe and watch something else. I don’t blame you either way, and I hope you’ll respect my privacy during this adventure.
That’s what I’m doing with my Netflix account this month. Here is hoping April gives us more scary movies because some of us deserve it. Most importantly, I deserve it.
Shudder is still that girl even in March. Our beloved streamer is adding classics like The Fog and Messiah of Evil. They are also adding a couple of films that are precious to my generation, like May. The app always has an eclectic lineup, but this month is an embarrassment of riches. At least if you are like me, and looking at a list of movies you have had on your watch list forever. That is why it took me a hot minute to figure out which five titles should be this month’s priority. However, I cracked the code and think I have something old, something new, and definitely at least a couple of things that will turn blue. Check out what I am trying to see on Shudder this month. Also, be sure to let me know if you are as geeked about these titles as I am.
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
The Last Horror Film (1982)
A New York taxi driver stalks an actress during the Cannes Film Festival. I love 80s slashers and have been on a quest to watch them all. This one has eluded me for a couple of years, and I am so happy Shudder is finally letting me cross it off my list. I am not expecting this to break my top 1980s slashers. I’m not even counting on it to be one of the best movies about a stalked actress of that era. However, I’m excited to finally see it for myself with an adult beverage in hand.
You can watch The Last Horror Film on March 1st.
Fade to Black (1980)
A film fanatic begins murdering people who betray him while stalking his idol. I finally caught this on Shudder in the last couple of years and will be using its return as an excuse to rewatch it. Very few movies cater to the slasher kids and film nerds as well as this one. Fade to Black is the kind of psychological horror comedy that is the reason 1980s horror remains unmatched. The costumes, the obsession, and the kills are the most fun you can possibly have on a Shudder Saturday. Do yourself a favor and hit play immediately.
You can watch Fade to Black on March 9th.
Hostile Dimensions (2023)
Two filmmakers travel through alternate dimensions seeking out the truth about a missing graffiti artist. This found footage film has been on my list for years, and I am so grateful that Shudder is finally letting me see it. I have heard so many great things, and the FOMO was killing me. Hopefully, Hostile Dimensions lives up to the hype. Otherwise, I have to ask my nearest and dearest to explain themselves and then stop accepting recommendations from them. Will it scratch the found footage itch I have this month? There is only one way to find out, and that is why I will be sat the day this drops on the app.
You can watch Hostile Dimensions on March 9th.
1000 Women in Horror (2025)
Women have been an integral part of the genre since Mary Shelley started thinking about Frankenstein. However, we do not always get the credit and respect we deserve. Which is why I am thrilled 1000 Women in Horror is celebrating the badasses who revolutionized horror films. Not only is the documentary opening the libraries for us, but it’s also bringing current faves along for the ride. Akela Cooper, Toby Poser, and Jenn Wexler are just some of the names I know who are about to inspire so many women to get serious about making their movies. I cannot stress enough how happy I am that Shudder is adding this to its lineup.
You can watch 1000 Women in Horror on March 20th.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
College friends backpacking through Britain are attacked by a werewolf. As a werewolf film enthusiast, I know they are not all made equally. That is one of the many reasons why this is easily one of the best werewolf movies the genre has. The transformation alone is worth the price of a Shudder subscription. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that this is one of the five titles I’m most excited to see this month. Hell, it’s probably in everyone’s top five to be completely honest. I cannot think of a better way to close this month out than with a top-tier werewolf flick.
You can watch An American Werewolf in London on March 31st.
I told you, Shudder is that girl. Whether you’re on spring break, taking a mental health day, or just dissociating, this app has got you covered. Make sure you dig into some of this sick, twisted, and cool cinema. As for me, I will see you next month with more recommendations.
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