In his 1924 book The Trauma of Birth, writer Otto Rank presents the suggestion that leaving the womb is a disruption of our uterine life that we spend the rest of our lives recovering from. I don’t really subscribe to any of his psychoanalytical work, but holy crap if I was an alien neomorph than I would definitely understand the miracle of life being a terrifying nightmare.
In a VR campaign for Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, we get to experience birth from a terrifying point of view. It starts off with a vague fleshy figure and a nice relaxing heartbeat noise, which abruptly turns into creepy hands accompanied by eerie noises and frantic screaming. Then, we get some blood-thirsty pursuits. It’s interesting that the campaign put us into the perspective of the alien, rather than the people–is that more or less scary, you think?
Heads up, if you’re easily disturbed or grossed out by blood and body horror you might want to skip this one. The description reads:
“ALIEN: COVENANT In Utero is a 360-degree virtual reality journey into a living nightmare and offers a terrifyingly close and personal encounter as an alien neomorph at the time of its birth. Fans will be able to experience the world around them, reliving the very first memories of the neomorph in an immersive environment.”
“In Utero” comes from AMD, Radeon & Alienware and was produced by Scott and directed by David Karlak. If you don’t have any VR equipment, no worries! Regal plans to have some headsets ready at their theaters if you want to experience this in full immersion. Scott’s Alien: Covenant comes to theaters May 19th.
(via Indiewire, Image: screencap)
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