Capturing the feeling of both the 1979 Alien and 2012’s Prometheus, a new re-cut trailer for Alien: Covenant brings back that iconic blaring alarm.
Back in 2012, Prometheus had an amazing teaser. And now, there’s a recut of the Alien: Covenant Christmas trailer to closer resemble the Prometheus debut trailer’s terrifying effect.
Uploaded by a YouTuber named “Cyrillic”, the fan-made recut Covenant trailer is minimalist and haunting, recalling the same approach Prometheus took in 2012. Back then, the minute-long, nearly wordless trailer for Prometheus was, itself, a homage to the first trailer for Alien in 1979, where brief, but horrific scenes were cut together to the now famous sounds of a blaring alarm.
All the while, the futuristic title logo would slowly form over the screen. These trailers for Alien, and later Prometheus, were effective in their brutal efficiency at conveying both the film’s visual setting, and the horror that was sure to come.
The official trailer for Alien: Covenant, by contrast, was heavier on exposition. Running at two-minutes long, the Alien: Covenant trailer featured a lot of dialogue, and burdened glimpses of the film’s visual elements with plot. But that’s altered in this new recut trailer.
Cutting the runtime of the first trailer by half, the edit removes all dialogue, and instead splices together the most visually striking moments of the trailer to the now familiar alarm sound in the Alien films.
The new trailer succeeds in heightening the tension of the film, making each moment of violence all the more striking by removing the exposition behind it. The original version of the trailer did a good job at re-setting the narrative of the film, and explaining to viewers that this will be a proper Alien entry. However, the recut is definitely the scarier of the two, and arguably the more faithful trailer in the Alien franchise.
Fans will see whether Alien: Covenant will capture the brutal spirit of the 1979 classic when the film hits theaters May 19, 2017.
