A Damned Take on Women in #Horror #Films: Sigourney Weaver @WiHMonth @Sotet_Angyal @BrianMoreland @PenoftheDamned #WiHM8

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Actor, Actress, Alien, Aliens, Brian Moreland, final girl, Horror, Leading Lady, Sigourney Weaver, WiHM, WiHM8, Women in Horror Month

A Damned Take on Women in Horror Films
The Guy’s Point of View!

In honor of Women in Horror Month 2017, I asked six male horror writers for their top-five favorite horror films staring strong leading ladies and why they loved them so much. So, without further ado…

Day 28 – Brian Moreland:

Alien/Aliens
Leading Lady: Sigourney Weaver

Synopsis:

Alien:

Alien: After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as distress call, their landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform. Continuing their journey back to Earth with the attacked crew having recovered and the critter deceased, they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

Aliens:

The moon from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?

Brian’s opinion:

“I’d be surprised if Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) doesn’t make everyone’s list. In Alien, she proves she’s the toughest space-trucker on board a spaceship when she plays cat and mouse with a giant xenomorph with acid for blood and snapping, metallic teeth. Trapped in space, no one can hear a trucker scream, or a woman roar. This alien hears Ellen Ripley and she outsmarts it, all while saving her ginger tomcat Jonsey. In Aliens, Ellen faces a whole hive of the spiny xeno-creatures. Ellen warned the space marines, but did they listen? By the end, Ellen taps into the mother-protecting-her-young mode as she fights to protect a young girl named “Newt” and rescue her from the hive. Determined, tough, and resourceful, Ellen Ripley represents the poster woman for the heroic female.”

About Brian:

Brian Moreland writes horror novels and short stories that get your heart pumpin’. He’s published eight books, including Dead of Winter, Shadows in the Mist, and Darkness Rising. Brian lives in Dallas, Texas where he wrangles monsters from other worlds. He’s dealt with his share of ghosts and serial killers too. For fun, Brian loves watching Dallas Cowboys football, world travel, and exploring caves.

Brian is an active member of the horror writer’s group Pen of the Damned.

Twitter: @BrianMoreland

Stop by my other blogs for more Women in Horror Month content!
Sotet Angyal, The Dark Angel – Dark emotive flash fiction written by me.
Spreading the Writer’s Word – A new Horror Flash-Fiction from a different female author daily in February!

And don’t forget to visit the Women in Horror Month official web site
for more great WiHM8 events and posts!

A Damned Take on Women in #Horror #Films: Sigourney Weaver @WiHMonth @Sotet_Angyal @DemonAuthor @PenoftheDamned #WiHM8

Tags

Actor, Actress, Alien, Dan Dillard, final girl, Horror, Leading Lady, Sigourney Weaver, WiHM, WiHM8, Women in Horror Month

A Damned Take on Women in Horror Films
The Guy’s Point of View!

In honor of Women in Horror Month 2017, I asked six male horror writers for their top-five favorite horror films staring strong leading ladies and why they loved them so much. So, without further ado…

Day 19 – Dan Dillard:

Alien
Leading Lady: Sigourney Weaver

Synopsis:

After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as distress call, their landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform. Continuing their journey back to Earth with the attacked crew having recovered and the critter deceased, they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

Dan’s opinion:

“In space, no one can hear you scream. It was the tagline and movie no one was ready for. Evil creatures from other worlds had, up to the release of Alien in 1979, been rubber-suited, low budget, cornball things in Saturday matinee and drive-in sci-fi schlock. And while Stan Winston’s Xenomorph was still a dude in a suit for the most part, it was terrifying. Blame it on claustrophobia, blame it on mood, blame it on atmosphere…whatever the combination that made Alien work, it worked like a sumbitch. I don’t think many would disagree with me that Sigourney Weaver’s Lieutenant Ellen Ripley drove that film. She was a no-nonsense officer who took charge and kicked ass and one of the few characters in film who maintained her swagger and cool even when some of the sequels went squirrely. I look forward to that possible upcoming Alien project Neil Blomkamp keeps teasing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4462546/), only because Sigourney Weaver is attached.”

An additional note from Dan: 

I’d like to say these are my favorites films with strong leading ladies, and they are definitely standouts, but there are so many more. Mostly gone are the days of the virgin final girl, the damsel in distress, the doting and clueless wife, the naked eye candy. As is often the case with these things, the horror genre may be leading the way. So in no real order, my five choices presented throughout the month of February are my absolute favorites. I’m sure most of you will agree, and maybe even say, “Pfft. Those were too easy.” For those people, I threw a fairly obscure film into the mix that I think everyone should watch.

Honorable mentions go out to:  Charlize Theron as Aileen Wournos in Monster, Christina Ricci as Wednesday in The Addams Family films, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie in Halloween, Leslie Easterbrook as Mother Firefly in The Devil’s Rejects, Gretchen Lodge as Molly in Lovely Molly, Jill Larson as Deborah in The Taking of Deborah Logan, and I could go on and on and on.

About Dan Dillard:

Dan lives in Bloomington, Indiana where it is currently cold and wintry. He is the author of Demons and Other Inconveniences, How to Eat a Human Being, Dig, Light as a Feather and others, Dan has been writing his whole life, but there was always an end goal:  Movies. After the short stories, came novels, then screenplays and finally, at forty-two years old, he went back to school to get his Bachelor of Science in Digital Cinematography and start putting some of those stories on the screen. His first non-student film is a short drama with elements of horror entitled “Anderson Wake” based on the short story from his collection, Down the Psycho Path. Look for the short film, produced by DeadLight Films in early 2017.

Dan is an alumni member of the horror writer’s group Pen of the Damned.

Film contact info:
dpdillard@fullsail.edu

Author contact info: 
demonauthor@gmail.com
www.demonauthor.com
www.facebook.com/demonauthor
www.twitter.com/demonauthor

Stop by my other blogs for more Women in Horror Month content!
Sotet Angyal, The Dark Angel – Dark emotive flash fiction written by me.
Spreading the Writer’s Word – A new Horror Flash-Fiction from a different female author daily in February!

And don’t forget to visit the Women in Horror Month official web site
for more great WiHM8 events and posts!

Sigourney Weaver – Celebrating Ladies of the Silver Scream for Women in Horror Recognition Month 2014

Tags

Alien, Movies, Sigourney Weaver, Silver Screen, WiHRM, women, Women in Horror Month

Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’ (1979)

Film Synopsis: (allmovie.com)
“In space, no one can hear you scream.” A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo’s crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship’s Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas’s (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane’s stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company.

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Short Bio: (wikipedia.org)
Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She is known especially for her role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. Other notable roles include Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and its sequel Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, Working Girl, and Grace Augustine in Avatar.

Her 1986 Academy Award nomination for Aliens is considered as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror genres, as well as a major step in challenging the gender role in cinema. Weaver progressively received fame for her numerous contributions to the science fiction film history (including minor roles in successful works such as Futurama, WALL-E, Paul and The Cabin in the Woods) and gained the nickname of “The Sci-Fi Queen”. She also played the lead role as Secretary of State Elaine Barrish on USA Network’s Political Animals miniseries.

Weaver has been nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress twice for Aliens and Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl. She also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Ice Storm, and two Saturn Awards for Aliens and Avatar respectively. In addition she also earned Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nominations. She has been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and won both Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress in 1988 for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl and becoming the first person ever to have won two acting Golden Globe Awards in the same year.