It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

Do you believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast, a video of the week podcast, committed to a classic film and how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release. I'm Keith Phipps here with... Dr. Robinson. Scott Tobias. And behind the boards is Genevieve Kosky. Here on the Next Picture Show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context. So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates to a current movie. This week, while no films exist in a vacuum, some films do take place in a vacuum. We're going to look at two such films, and if we make it back alive, discuss them. Tasha, what do we have lined up? Ridley Scott's Space Horror movie Alien arrived in theaters in May of 1979, and it's inspired

a wide array of sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and knockoffs, including the new Life,

which has come in for some pointed alien comparisons.

But for this episode, we're going back to the source, to the first film that reminded

viewers that in space no one could hear them scream.

Alien arrived as part of a wave of demand

for all things science fiction, started by the twin successes of Star Wars and close encounters of the

third kind. What type of science fiction films mattered less than the genre? Hence everything from

the cat from outer space to a remake of invasion of the body snatchers to the sublimely silly Star Wars rip-off star crash, making their way to theaters.

Alien arrived as a viable hybrid, marrying hard science fiction trappings to an old-fashioned monster-in-the-dark horror movie.

The new movie, Life, directed by Daniel Espinoza, attempts a similar marriage, throwing in some of the cutting-edge cinematography and zero-gravity-simulating wirework,

recently seen in Alfonso Coran's gravity.

Keith, did the life characters have any easier time of it than the unfortunate crew of aliens in Estromo?

You'll have to keep listening to find out. Spoiler alert. Not really. Please join us after the break.

Some of you may have figured out we're not home yet we're only halfway there what mothers interrupt the course of our journey what yeah you just

programmed to do that should certain conditions arise they have. Like what? Seems she has intercepted a transmission of unknown origin.

She got us up to check it out.

A transmission? Out here?

Yeah.

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