User blog comment:ShawnCognitionCP/Alien: The Horror God, and if You've Been Influenced/@comment-26030957-20150301192242

As Shawn pointed out in his blog, Alien was the harbinger of the slasher films of the eighties. One of the most dominant themes in these films is that sex is death. Both Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees kill promiscuous teenagers and only abstinence can save you (a funny theme for a time period that was pre-AIDS). Well in many ways Alien also shares those themes. As was already pointed out earlier, Ash, the cold and emotionless android, tries to kill our strong heroine with pornography. There is also the idea that the face huggers are planting their seed into their victims, a sexual act. Of course the infant alien is so phallic appearing, a terrifying penis with teeth. Ripley is also at her most vulnerable point when she is stripped down to her underwear, making her very sexualized. It is then that she comes closest to death, and is only able to survive after she puts on a bulky, space suit which hides her sexuality and femininity. An interesting thing here, remember that scene, after the face hugger has died, and they are prodding it? Remember how viscous and soft and fleshy it was? Well Scott said he wanted the underside of the face hugger to appear like a vagina. He said the thing that appeared most like a vagina to him in nature (I am not making this up, I swear it) were oysters, and raw oysters are what they used in that scene, extremely effectively I might add as well. What do you guys think about all of this?