10 Desperate Ways To Market Horror Movies

5. Advertise What People Want, Regardless - Alien 3

Sam Jackson Snakes On A Plane
20th Century Fox

To go into all of the problems of Alien 3 would require a whole list of its own, yet one of the most disappointing elements of the picture is that it outright promoted something that it would absolutely not deliver on.

As James Cameron's phenomenal Aliens had culminated with Ripley, Newt, Hicks and the remains of Bishop taking a well-earned hypersleep, these survivors are on their way to Earth. With an ending like that, audiences got excited about the prospect of any future film seeing this foursome battling Xenomorphs on our home planet.

By the time it came to the first teaser trailer for Alien 3, 20th Century Fox went hard to reiterate that the action of this threequel was heading to Earth, using the brilliant tagline of, "In 1979, we discovered, in space, no one can hear you scream. In 1992, we discover, on Earth, everyone can hear you scream".

This was it, this was what we'd all waited for, and this was going to be amazing, right? Nope. By the time Alien 3 hit cinemas, Earth wasn't even featured in the movie. Instead, the Fury 161 foundry was the setting for the film.

If that wasn't bad enough, Alien 3 would also quietly kill off Newt and Hicks before then permanently deactivating Bishop. Nice one...

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.