“Alien: Romulus” Practical Facehugger Creature Effects Video Shared Prior to Movie’s Digital Release Tomorrow

Ahead of tomorrow’s digital release of Alien: Romulus from 20th Century Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has shared an exclusive behind-the-scenes video showcasing the acclaimed film’s practical Facehugger creature effects.

What’s happening:

  • The entertainment industry trade publication The Hollywood Reporter has shared an exclusive behind-the-scenes video showing off the practical Facehugger creature effects used in the 20th Century Fox movie Alien: Romulus, which was released in theaters this past August and arrives on digital tomorrow.
  • You can watch the video in the embedded post below.


What they’re saying:

  • Director Fede Álvarez: “The life cycle of the creature always starts with the Facehugger. The guys from Weta– they were the only ones in the group that had never worked on Alien, and they were dying to be part of it. So we go, ‘Okay, you guys got the Facehuggers.’ We had rubber puppets that we’d just throw at the actors’ faces, we had full-on animatronics that we could puppeteer. When they were struggling [on] someone’s face, we could just really puppeteer them and all their parts. We even had an RC car that was my favorite thing on set– it was an RC Facehugger that I could drive around, and get it to run between people’s legs. It was a terrifying thing.”
  • Actor Archie Renaux: “I had a very close encounter with one. Bjorn saved the day a little bit. Well, he did save the day a lot.”
  • Weta Workshop Supervisor Tyler Page: “This is our proboscis Facehugger. This is what attacks Tyler in the cryo-chamber. There’s a series of cables attached up to these guitar tuners. As we move this disc in every direction, you get [movement]. This is another version– just a straight silicon tail. Sometimes we would put a little bit of fishing line on these, and puppeteer the tail that way. These ones, you pull them and the claws will open up.”

Alien: Romulus will become available to own on digital platforms beginning tomorrow, October 15th. The film will also be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD disc on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Mike Celestino
Mike serves as Laughing Place's lead Southern California reporter, Editorial Director for Star Wars content, and host of the weekly "Who's the Bossk?" Star Wars podcast. He's been fascinated by Disney theme parks and storytelling in general all his life and resides in Burbank, California with his beloved wife and cats.