STACK #148 Feb 2017

FEATURE DVD&BD

These four Arrivals arrived before Arrival ...

deciding on a design that was unfamiliar and strange. “I came up with the idea

take a step back from the process and decide that this film needed to be raw. It needed to be truthful. When the aliens and spacecraft arrive, we all feel surprise, and as frightened and compelled to be in contact with them as the characters in the film." Depicting the visitors’

An elderly gent is rejuvenated after he's taken over by an alien parasite and transformed into a vampire that feeds on estrogen. Also known as The Unwelcomed , which is an equally unimaginative title given the subject matter. THE ARRIVAL (1991)

that the spaceship should be shaped like a pebble, a

little stone, ovoid. I based the shape on an asteroid, or small planet, called Eunomia [aka asteroid 15] that's in orbit in the solar system. The shape's insane,

It's about a fresh look at how

like a strange egg. That strange, perfect [shape] felt ominous, mysterious, frightening to me." The enigmatic, shell-like craft that park themselves over twelve seemingly random locations on

simple and raw life can be for human beings on Earth, and how simple and raw it could be for an alien intelligence

otherworldliness was also crucial to the film’s success and presented

Before he was making Riddick movies, writer-director David Twohy helmed this X-Files inspired conspiracy thriller in which Charlie Sheen uncovers an alien plot to change the Earth's climate. THE ARRIVAL (1996)

Villeneuve with the challenge of creating unique alien designs beyond audience preconceptions. The director notes that he wanted the creatures – called ‘heptapods’

Earth are as alien as their inhabitants, but they also have a symbolic significance, according to Villeneuve. "There was a relationship with life, with birth, that was perfect for the idea behind the spaceship," he explains. "We thought… that the spaceship should be made from matter that's not from Earth. It's not a shiny spaceship. It's not white, or made of metal or plastic, it's made of a strange stone. We aren't sure what this is exactly. We can't even guess." "Every time they enter into the spaceship," adds Young, "as a viewer you want to go back there, because it's the one space in the film where you can see things, where you can understand what it means to watch human beings evolve. The other place is a little bit darker, a little bit dirtier, as Denis and I would call it. There's a visual trajectory about starting

in the film – to possess a strong sense of presence and intelligence, like a whale or an elephant. Moreover, their spacecraft and technology also had to be unlike anything we had seen before. "Oftentimes in sci-fi films human beings have so much influence on our interpretation of what alien intelligence is," says Young. "This is about backing away from that. What if human beings never had contact with aliens? Would they have alloys? Metals? Would they arrive with all the things that we assume because we, as human intelligence, have access to these things? "It's about a fresh look at how simple and raw life can be for human beings on Earth and how simple and raw it could be for an alien intelligence. We wanted to scale it down and make it very personal – that's been our focus from the beginning, making a very innocent, personal film but with scale." Villenueve notes that he initially conceived the alien spacecrafts as spheres, before

Patrick Muldoon continues half-brother Charlie Sheen's efforts to expose the aliens among us in this sequel to the 1996 film. Also known as The Second Arrival , despite the fact that the aliens are already here. ARRIVAL II (1998)

in a dark place, which is the unknown, and ending in a place that's a little more elevated, which is about enlightening oneself and coming to a realisation of who we are as human beings."

ABBA – ARRIVAL

• Arrival is out on Feb 22

Featuring hits like "Dancing Queen", "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Money, Money, Money", the Swedish popsters' 1976 album is one of their most successful records. (That's enough arrivals, time to depart – Ed.)

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