25 Things You Didn't Know About Alien

24. The Creature Effects Were Created Using Real Organic Material

Alien Facehugger
20th Century Fox

Even 40 years on, there's something impressively and terrifyingly realistic about many of Alien's creature effects, especially in comparison to comparatively rubbery-looking props and creatures from films of the same era.

That's because the alien eggs, the facehugger and the chestburster were all made to look believable by using a variety of real organic materials.

The dead facehugger was made using shellfish and sheep kidneys, lots of animal guts were fired at the cast for the chestburster scene and the interior of the alien egg was made from cattle hearts and stomachs with a sheep's intestine for the facehugger tube.

Imagine how the set must have smelt under all those studio lights.

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A self-taught video editor with nearly 25 years of experience, Joe worked in freelance videography for many years before joining WhatCulture in 2018. During that time, he has expanded his work to include both writing and presenting, and has been at the forefront of several new channel launches including WhatCulture Horror and WhatCulture Star Wars, largely defining their visual identity through the design and curation of their bespoke assets. As a dedicated WhatCulture Gaming staff member, he has spearheaded numerous new content strategies and formats, and has taken the lead on various charitable projects that have raised large sums of money for charities close to his heart. Bluesky and Instagram: @jjpinwheel