The Alien franchise is a juggernaut of a media property, having made waves with 1979’s Alien as a creeping, suspenseful deep space horror film. It features genuinely shocking imagery, as the titular, HR Gieger-designed, Xenomorph is nearly the perfect movie monster. While the first film was historic for introducing us to the dread-inducing stalker, its sequel Aliens (1986) cemented the franchise’s legacy. Both of these movies rule, yet I’m more of a video game person than I am a cinefile, and in this particular medium Alien retains its propensity for fright.
Alien: Isolation is a video game starring the daughter of the protagonist from the film franchise who is stranded in a space station with the Xenomorph. Unlike antagonists in most video games, the Xenomorph is not a threat to be defeated, she is an evil to survive. Dread is the predominant emotion as the player survives in the space station Sevastopol. That fear doesn’t only stem from the monster stalking you, the Sevastopol itself is hostile; a city-sized chunk of metal floating in cold space, threatening to lose power at any moment. The station was owned and operated by the fictional tech-corporation, Seegston, who built the station with hopes of creating a new prosperous life for its residents, but over the course of the story you learn Seegston has abandoned the station and its residents because it wasn’t making them enough money.
Forget for a second that this is a story about being hunted by an alien with acidic blood that burns through metal. The story of corporate negligence is just as relevant in real life as it is in this universe. The purpose of a corporation is to make money, any sort of tangible good or relevant product they provide is incidental, these entities are interested in acquiring wealth.
This dynamic has produced disastrous consequences. The most consequential corporate inaction was 1984 when a chemical plant in Bhopal, India owned and operated by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) had a gas leak, killing at least 3,000 people, and severely injuring over 500,000 people in close proximity to the plant. Local journalists acknowledged that this disaster was inevitable for years leading up to the incident, yet UCIL neglected to address the stated security precautions due to cost. Seemingly, it was never questioned whether “cost” could refer to human life and not just money.
Of course, this is the most tragic version of corporate negligence, smaller infractions on this relationship between people and their working environment happen every day. Do you remember Lizzo? She was the beacon of positivity for half of a decade before some of her workers came forward with stories of abuse. The power dynamic of an employee and employer is ripe for exploitation. Your boss isn’t your friend, and they cannot be because of the power that they have over your livelihood.
There are a great number of fears that an individual can have that others may not share or understand. Children fear monsters under their bed or in their closets, while some people never grow out of their fear of ghosts or an alien invasion. Fears like these are valid of course, and speak to a greater horror from the unknowable. If you ask me though, as frightful as that mystery can be, it is the known evil from real people that is the true terror.
