10 Secrets From The Set Of Ridley Scott's Alien

With its long, bony fingers, snake-like tail, and disturbing air bags, the facehugger very quickly became one of the creepiest critters ever to scurry onto the big screen. Everything about this creature, originally designed by the legendary H. R. Giger, made your skin crawl - including its own beige skin.

There was actually a point there when the plan was to have it painted green, though, something that perhaps could have made it look a little silly and less unsettling. However, after writer Dan O'Bannon arrived to set one day to see the final but still unpainted version of the alien he'd also helped design, he soon felt there was no need to go green.

According to the film's commentary (via FilmSchoolRejects), O'Bannon saw the human flesh-tone colour of the alien and thought this was more inventive than what they originally had in mind.

There's no denying that letting the facehugger remain a bone/human skin colour helped make it look both believable and freaky, a winning combination that has continued to perturb viewers in subsequent Alien nightmares.