As the latest (and first small-screen) installment of the beloved Alien franchise, Alien: Earth has a lot to live up to – and lead prosthetics artist Steven Painter says he felt that the most strongly when taking on the show's version of the chestburster.
Warning: there are Alien: Earth spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution if you're not up to date!
"As far as the effect that took the longest in my head – which was about a year to work it out – was the chestburster sequence," Painter told Bloody Disgusting. "When Noah [Hawley, showrunner] approached me to do it, he mentioned the John Hurt chestburster moment. It’s an iconic scene. From my point of view, it’s quite pressurizing to come up with something as good as that in a show like this."
The scene in the show occurs in episode 7, the season's penultimate episode, when a newborn Xenomorph bursts out of Arthur's chest. In the original movie, the chestburster's target is John Hurt's Kane, resulting in one of the most iconic scenes in sci-fi movie history. No pressure, then.
"So I approached it very carefully and I watched the original sequence over and over," Painter continued. "I broke it down and took elements from it, but then updated it for modern times. What I really wanted to do was expand on it. So we see the whole body of the creature now, and it’s in daylight. We gave ourselves a lot of work to do, but hopefully we’ve given the fans what they wanted to see."
All episodes of Alien: Earth are now streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the rest of this year's biggest new TV shows.
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