How and when did you become an Alien fan?

Back in 1979. When I saw an article in Starlog Magazine. Hooked from that point forward. 

great post.... well i was 1 when it came out lol so i guess when i saw and understood it as a monster around 84? been in my nightmares eversince ; )

I was fascinated and horrified by the concept of being trapped in space with the perfect killing machine in pursuit. I was also intrigued by the Alien's motivation. For example, is a cat a killing machine when it kills and eats a bird? We think nothing of that because a cat isn't a predator for us. However, how about an alligator? Now that gets my attention but an alligator isn't evil for trying to eat and survive, is it? So is the Alien evil?

One of my classmates had been to the States on holiday with his family. He brought back the Official Warren ALIEN Magazine, which he gleefully showed off to everyone!

To cut a long story short...I made him an offer, which thankfully, he accepted!

So, from that moment on, I became obsessed with Giger and A L I E N before I had even seen the movie!

I went to see the movie at late night in Sydney  ,it was full house ,in the chestburster scene someone had heart attack,they stop the movie and gave everyone another ticket or refund,couldn't help myself and went to see it again next night,still I believe it was best horror sci fi.

I 15 when I saw Alien and Aliens ( Aliens being my Favorite, More action) I didn't like where they were going with alien3 and alien R

But when Prometheus came out and introduced the engineers I was Fascinated and have been ever since ( cant count how many times I've watched Prometheus lol)

I'm very excited for the next prequel installment and love where they might be taking the story.

@Lone

what was the first report of Alien 2 in that magazine as far as storyline in comparison to Cameron's Aliens? 

Hmm I think I was....12? 13? My cousin and I were home alone scrolling through the listings, and Alien: The Directors Cut was on, and my cousin said we should watch it.  I remember being so bored for the first half hour, and then crap hit the fan, and my eyes were glued to the screen until the end. 

A friend explained the Alien franchise to me a few years ago and then I started watching the movies.

I have been a life long SciFi fanatic. And especially 'stories evolving onboard' are what grab me most. I like the claustrophobic atmosphere of things going wrong, the techy interiors etc like Event Horizon and such, Star Trek.. but just in a much higher degree Alien as before i ever got to really see the films I had gotten aware of Giger back in my art academy days some 20 years back. What keeps me so tightly focussed on this franchise is the canonic aspect, I like the stuff I see to kind of build of a greater idea. And I like the aspect Alien is sort of staying true to itself, the audience. Ridley's dedication to the Alien Universe is what makes me watch this stuff in awe.. And I figure I certainly am not the only one who can watch e.g. Prometheus atleast once every month or two :P  

@Earle: Same here, nobody I know really understands the thing I have with Alien.. Luckily there's this place !

I sometimes feel silly when I say to myself, "How were the Aliens created?" And "Who are the Engineers?" It's as if I'm trying to solve some historical riddle, not a fictional movie. haha. Yet, I am obsessed with the origins and motivations of these beings. I choose to believe that both the Engineers and Aliens were benign and somehow lost their way. I also choose to believe that there's still a good side to both. Maybe there will be an Alien hero (Dare I say with Christ-like qualities), who will persuade the Aliens to be protectors rather than destroyers. Hey, and maybe the Aliens are protectors of their species or another species that we've not seen. That's the real dilemma for me, trying to decide if there's good in the Aliens.    

Around '78 or '79. I was 5. My brother brought home the Alien book from the library. Full color pics. I remember my older sister talking about the chest buster scene. I remember a couple years later, in 2nd grade, my friend telling the class about going to the drive in to see it. It was 1985 before I saw it on Beta max. The unknown, imagery and the isolation scared me. Loved it!

Spring of 1979. And I really became obsessed with the Space Jockey scene and What the hell was that Thing in that seat that looked to be there for thousands of years! Too me the Space Jockey/Engineer is as much an Alien or even more than the Xenomorph!

Saw aliens theatrical 
Cut on VHS 1990 and 
Watched it 10 times 
In one week.

Fan ever since.

 I become a fan when my father bring me the "Alien Trilogy" game for the Playstation 1, and that was awesome, now I am 17 and I love this films

I would say since 1987..... really saw Alien in 1985-6 then Aliens 1987 and been a fan ever since... not totally 100% Fan boy.. as liked other franchises too... some went bit sour.... but i felt Alien had tried to go some place different with Prometheus..

So i am very into Alien franchise now..... i think potential was greater than Predators...  as well prior to AVP... Predator was Top Dog... then Alien and Aliens... Predator 2 and Alien 3... so so... Alien R erm.... Predators so so... Prometheus well screamed Potential

I was very young, it was probably early to mid nineties when my dad gave in after a lot of begging from me to see Alien on VHS.

Bad mistake, the rather quiet and creepy intro set the tone and I remember that I was increasingly scared as the film progressed on the planet LV-426. The dark twisted surface coupled with the rather modest soundtrack and downright nightmarish design really made me feel uncomfortable like nothing else in comparison.

Then, during the facehugger attack in the derelict, I lost my s*** completely and couldn't watch anymore until years later XD I was so scared I remember walking out to the backyard and trying to convince myself that it was only a movie. It took effect several days later. My dad wasn't too happy.

Years passed and Alien Resurrection came along and I, once again, managed to persuade my dad so that I could watch it. Thanks to the rather corny set of characters that sort of "toned down" the overall horror frame, I managed to sit through the whole film but not sleep through the night following the viewing. 

These two experiences in succession brought me into the world of Alien, and I've been a huge fan ever since, regardless of which medium the Xenos would end up in. 

Starlog 1978-79. I was a HUGE Star Wars Obsessed, but as a result I was even MORE a Sci Fi crazed kid. That green egg in Starlog led me to the movie, which my mom reluctantly took me and a couple friends to, even though it was "R", lol. The movie has great memories for me and is my favorite movie of all time.

I fell in love with the Alien franchise when I was five years old believe it or not. My Dad had rented Alien and began watching it after putting me to bed. Being five I of course could not fall asleep so I snuck up to the living room to see what was going on.  I hid behind my Dad's lazy boy chair and watched the whole movie without him knowing.  Then I immediately had nightmares but I was still hooked. A few years later I somehow  convinced my mother to let me buy a Alien Trilogy box set on VHS. You can imagine the reaction of the woman running my daycare when I brought Aliens in to watch with my fellow daycare mates one time.  We got to the first dream sequence, where Ripley imagines she has been impregnated by an Alien and the chestburster starts to come out of her stomach, before the daycare woman quickly removed the tape from the VCR. I can't wait for Covenant and look forward to seeing some xeno action on screen again. 

Snuck downstairs age 6 when parents where watching alien, absolutely terrorfied me for many years but couldn't get them out of my mind became obsessed ever since

I was born on 2000 and the first 2 movies were around since i can remember. But i got really hyped about the whole story and xenomorphs when i turned 14 - it's still one of my all time favorite stories(with Die Hard, Blade, Terminator, Back To The Future, etc.). I am really looking forward this movie and possibly i'll try to watch it in the best place possible. The franchise deserves it. (Also, you MUST check out all the alien games! The AVP is is a bit glitchy, but you can play as a freaking xeno! Colonial Marines is a disaster but for hardcore fans it'll roll. And the Isolation... if you haven't herd of it you have really been living in a cave.)

I remember that mag, Lone. I can't remember now if it was that or the Starlog, or THAT commercial that got me so interested. It was probably some combination of the three, lol. 

Couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. My mom had finally let me sit with her and watch Aliens on VHS. I remember being more excited and curious than scared but always had a bit of a healthy fear. The scene where Ripley first encounters the queen came up. When she reveals her head from under what. Would guess to be her "crown" my mom said I looked ate her and said "Mama!!!!! Look at the big cockroach!!" Been a die hard fan ever since. Use to build evac fighters out of Legos running through the house whilst blasting the countdown song from the soundtrack screaming "punch it bishop!!!" Would have to say that the first is still the best. But the second was always more fun. Can't wait to sit in the theatre and feel that excitement again.

I became an Alien fan thanks to Ghostbusters Staypuff marshmallow man, and because my dad took a pretty crazy risk with a 7 year old. Let me explain. 

I was around 7 years old when I watched ghostbusters on tv for the first time. My whole family was watching it on video in the living room one night and my dad said that the bad guy at the end was really scary and got me all amped to see something that would be cool and scary. So when the Staypuff marshmallow man comes stomping down 5th avenue at the end of the movie I was not impressed. I was so mad that I threw a temper tantrum and apparently wouldn't stop complaining about how disappointed I was. Keep in mind I was also 7 years old. So, after my mom and siblings clear out my dad took me upstairs into my parents bedroom and tells me to sit by the tv and be quite. I think I probably annoyed the crap out of him at this point about wanting to see something scary, so he decided he was gonna show it to me. He put in some video tape and I sat down next to the tv watching some people laugh and eat dinner around some white table. I remember turning to him and saying this isn't scary, then him saying just watch. All of the sudden I see some man choking and get concerned. In my mind I'm like omg this guy is gonna choke to death and was already kinda scared because I never saw someone die in a movie before. We were only allowed to watch Disney movies really. The Goonies and Ghostbusters were as edgy as my siblings and I were allowed to get. I was already pretty scared watching a man choke to death when all of the sudden blood comes flying out of his chest. As this was happening I was staring at the tv in shock and heard my moms voice calling for my dad. I was  horrified but couldn't stop watching. Just as my mom made it to the door I saw the Alien burst out of John Hurts chest while letting out that crazy shriek and then scurry away. 

My mom was so mad that my dad let me watch that. The next thing I remember is getting picked up by her and taken into my room which I shared with one of my brothers. I think I cried after I saw the Alien too and couldn't fall asleep right away for at least a week and had nightmares for a month. Fast forward to me being 16 and going to the video store to rent aliens for the first time. At this point I was older and even though I still didn't really get to watch scary movies I was determined to face that monster again and see what I thought this time. After it was over I fell in love. I went back and watched Alien again. And loved it and have been a fan ever since. I saw Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection in the theater as well as Prometheus. I don't really consider Alien vs Predator or the sequel part of the Alien universe. I think the movies go in order of how good they are with Alien and Aliens being interchangeable because they were both amazing movies and both so different. Alien 3 was much better then Resurrection and I liked Prometheus even though a lot of people didn't really get into it. I am so happy and excited Ridley is back directing an Alien movie and from what this site and the internet have said so far, it sounds like it's going to be everything I loved about the first two. Sorry for the long post. These movies are my favorite movies of all time. I'm also beyond excited for this trailer to drop and think we'll definitely get to see it once Assissans creed comes out. 

I was 5 years old when I became a die-hard fan. My cousin was "kind of" into the franchise and had some of their toys. I found his collection and immediately became obsessed. I went on to collect the movies (theatrical AND special edition), comics, toys, video games and any merch that even vaguely mentioned the franchise. It all started with this: 

For me it had to have been when I was about 7 years old, early 90's, Alien was on TV and I had snuck down into our basement to watch it. I was interested because my parents told me I couldn't watch it. So, being very young, in the basement (perfect scary place) I picked up the movie right when Kane was looking at the eggs, and then gets jumped by the facehugger. I was hooked after that. Gave me incredible nightmares. I love that about these movies, to this day, now and again I have a dream with the Alien in it, and to me that's what gives it the ultimate cool factor. These monsters are just scary as f***

Anyway, shortly thereafter Alien 3 came out on VHS and I convinced my dad to rent it, he couldn't argue with my logic, I'd already seen the 1st one. Wasn't long after that I finally got around to watching Aliens. Aliens really hooked me. I loved the marines. I loved the style. I loved the way everything looked and the cool hardware. I started drawing everything I saw and still draw that stuff today. I loved Aliens. It really wasn't until the last 10 years or so that I came around and decided Alien was the superior film, Aliens is a close second tho. 

I thought Ressurection was really bad. I had disliked 3 until Ressurection came out, then I had a newfound appreciation for 3.

Ressurection worked better on paper but really was a bad bad movie, and I can debate that for hours with anyone who is up for the challenge lol, I am an ultimate nitpicker. Then there were the garbage AvP movies.

I got so excited when Prometheus came out, it took me back, it was finally a good installment in the universe. I can't wait for Covenant.

Sometime back in 1980-81. As a 10 year old kid staying up late one night with nothing to watch on TV when low and behold I find Alien. Whoa! I was left amazed. By the time Aliens was released at the theater... I was hooked! Now with Mr. Scott bringing it all out again I just can't get enough. I am SO looking forward to the release of the upcoming Coveneant teaser trailer that I have went on and prepared for the unforeseen accidental peeing of the pants!

My Aunt brought me and my brothers a taped copied of ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3 back in 1995-1996-ish I think I was about 5 or 6 at those time. Freaking movie gave me nightmares, cried myself to sleep but been a devoted alien fan (along side my undying devotion to the Jurassic Park films) ever since. Also this was the time when they were advertised those Kenner Alien and Predator toys. Although my first space movie was Star Wars: A New Hope, and my second was Star Trek IV, ALIEN and ALIENS was my third and by far most favorite. ALIEN 3 was okay, I didn't like the story behind it but I did love the atmosphere and creature's concept, Alien Resurrection stunk and so did AVP the movie (I hated Paul W S Anderson ever since...well this and what he did to Resident Evil, but AVP just crossed the line)

AVPR I thought was better than AVP but still it wasn't worthy to be part of the ALIEN franchise, then reports of an Alien prequel came out and I was like yes! when I learned that Ridley Scott was to direct it, I was like yes! Then I read that its name was changed to prometheus I did get a little worried until I watched the film and then I was like yes, needs a god damn sequel fast!

I guess i'm one of the newer fans. I was born long after alien came out. I never will forget that moment when i saw the trailer for prometheus for the first time in the theater. The atmosphere and the tone wouldn't let me go. I watched prometheus shortly after and then the alien movies and since then I am a huge fan of the franchise. I watched the first alien and prometheus countless times and i feel like i'm a fan since '79. I think that prometheus is a very very underrated movie and did turn many people like me into huge alien-fans. I am super excited for Alien:Covenant!

I saw Aliens when I was 7 in 1988. Hooked since then. Binged Alien like most kids did Barney.  It might explain some things...

After Prometheus!  That movie was (and still is) a crazy/fun puzzle for me.  The fact that so much of it was ambiguous made me want to figure everything out and kept me wanting more.  On top of that, I have always been a huge horror buff and I couldn't believe I had never seen Alien or Aliens at that point.  So I watched them.  And Alien became my 3rd favorite movie of all time, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Ingmar Bergman's Persona.  And since then I've pretty much eaten up anything Alien.  Although I don't care too much for the AVP stuff and the non-canon stuff, but it's all still pretty great and the world is better off with it than without it.  I do really dig the comics and graphic novels though.  And Alien got me into Lovecraft and cosmic horror.  I've also read Star Beast and the unused Alien scripts.  

I became a fan after ALIENS 86'. I was really into The Terminator and the back story of that. My brother told me that the Director(Cameron) was going to make a Aliens movie and when it came out on VHS I couldn't stop watching it. Alien came after for me and that was it I was hooked. I was probably seven or eight.

Been in since the beginning.  Watched the original Alien movie in a movie theater in Japan in 1979.  Was a strapping young lad of 24 on my first deployment.

As MJ has brought up, funny to watch a guy in a rubber suit, with a penis head, become this huge franchise.  But it was the Giger creations that transformed it from another B horror movie into it's own franchise.

For me the fascination really started with JC's depiction of Marines in Space.  Although that portrayal was very cartoonish it set my mind to wondering.  I thought it would be awesome to go off planet and kick alien creature ass, in a friggin EVA suit no less.  Although that's a two-way street, as we have seen. 

I saw Aliens on VHS in 1987 at 18 with some friends and really liked it. Got busy with military a few years and saw Alien on DVD around 1991 ish- whenever DVDs came out for the first time. I lost count of how many times I have watched the Anthology.  I could go on for pages.....

I got to be one of the younger fans here(born in 90)but kinda like Star wars Ive been an Alien for as long as i can remember.I think my mom or dad may have rented them once again cant remember but all ways loved them (especially Aliens my favorite movie all time only rivaled by Blade Runner)I remember not being scared of them but somehow terrified of the wizard of oz(the wicked witch not the monkies)also Species had freaked me out too for the lesser Giger creation.I also was lucky enough to see Alien Resurrection even though I was only 7 when it came out.I actually still have a lot of the old kenner figures not in the greatest condition though.Its my favorite franchise and i feel Alien 3(The assembly cut)Alien Resurrection and Prometheus are underrated and deserve more than they get although i cant really defend the AVP movies(love the predator movies any way) they rightfully suck.I saw the 1st one in the theater and regretted it.I rented Reqium and didnt hate it as much but its still pretty fucking stupid.I watched it the other day with my sister and all we did was make fun of it.As for the 1st movie i dont know whats worse that or the colonial marines video game.

Was in the womb in 79 so probably saw ALIEN mid-eighties ish with my Dad.  

Funnily, I was never that frightened of the film - not like say Friday the 13th scared me as a kid (I know, I know ;) - ALIEN was more of a thriller to me.  But the idea of the ALIEN was a creepy one.

What stuck in my mind was the SJ and the derelict.  Always have done.  Such mystery and wonder especially for a young boy!

Wen I saw the trailer to Prom it gave me that childlike rush of excitement again.  ALIENS was good and I loved it as a kid but watching it now it doesn't have the same sci-fi intrigue and mystery that ALIEN does.

Whilst I like the other 2 follow ups as stand alone films, I kind of see them as not real in the alien universe ;)  I guess I never liked the way they followed ALIENS, and AR is just  a pop corn chucker with aliens in it.  

re. the Alien - I don't think it is evil.  Never did.  It's only evil to us as we are part of it's 'food chain' or a necessary part of its reproductive cycle; which is horrifying to us.  It's essentially a perfect organism.  All life seems to want to continue; that's lifes' purpose if you will - to go on living, and to do that it needs fuel and to reproduce.  It would seem the alien is the pinnacle of this.  Only humanity apply morality into the mix . . .

As someone said early in this thread we don't think a cat or lion evil for hunting its prey . . .

That said, it would seem co-existing is not a mutually beneficial option lol ;) 

I'm really hoping that wherever RS goes with this, and the tie in with ALIEN, it answers some of the questions about the xeno origins and the SJ but also leaves some mystery.  However, this needs to be done well and not simply by having many wild plot threads that have no real meaning or relevance to the plot like LOST ;) 

Glad I'm not the only one still harbouring a childish crush on the xeno for all these years lol :) 

@Lone - I sooooo want that magazine ;)  lol

Saw Alien in Sweden December 1979 at the age of 17. I will never forget the moment the facehugger bursted out of the egg, the audience screamed in panic !  

I was already hooked on Science Fiction, but what was there beside Star Trek, Space 1999, Star Wars and pocket novels?  Ridley brought it to another dimension with Alien. Been hooked on the Alien story ever since, bit of a disappointment with Prometheus though. Nowadays I just watch a movie once at the cinema and will buy the Blue-ray later on.  

Believe I saw Alien 4 times at the cinema, Aliens 5, or 6 times.

Alien 3, Alien Resurrection and Prometheus did not earn more than one view each from me.  

My biggest hope now is that Ridley will stay in good health in order to deliver and bring clearance to all unanswered questions in the coming 2, or 3 movies.  

When I was 7 years old (1992/93), I saw the trailer for ordering Alien 3 by paperview on the cable guide channel at like 6 in the morning while my extremely christian mother was asleep on the couch. I sat for 2 hours until she woke up watching the previews cycle through so I could see it as many times as possible. It was the first time I'd seen a xeno. I was fascinated. Within a few weeks I was seeing Alien action figure commercials showing action figure loader dropping action figure aliens down air lock shafts.

Later that year my grandmother was watching me while my parents were at a Thursday night church service. She was in the kitchen doing the dishes and I was flipping through cable channels. I stopped at one channel (may have been TNT) just in time to see the queen's tail punch through Bishop's chest. I freaked out and changed the channel (mostly because I thought my grandmother was going to come in the room and I'd get in trouble). After a few seconds I realized she wasn't coming in the room. I hit the 'Last' button just in time to see Bishop get ripped in half. At that point I was blown away. My paranoia was getting the best of me and I spent the entire remainder of the movie flipping back and forth trying to catch glimpses of the fight with the queen.

A few weeks later I told my dad what I saw and he became visually upset (he too was extremely Christian). He told me that it was a movie I was never supposed to see and I wasn't allow to tell my mother. His reaction only made me more curious though. From then on I spent every chance I had alone with him asking him questions about the movie until finally I got him to give me a full rundown of all 3. I didn't realize at the time but in hindsight, he enjoyed telling me about the movies. I would later understand he was a hardcore fan of the first movie and enjoyed the second. He explained every plot point of the movies to me in vivid detail (adding on the first one that he would never let me watch the original chestbursting scene). When he had finished I told him I wanted to see the movies. He told me I couldn't, but I pushed it.

Several months later my mother was at a baby shower and he took me to the Erol's video store near our house and said I could pick a movie. I told him I wanted to rent Alien. He fought me at first but I pressed and he reluctantly agreed to rent Aliens (I believe he thought the first one would be too much for me.)

We went home and popped it in. I was already fully aware of what the story I was in for would be. What I didn't expect was the ability to convey panic through arranging images and a situation with music. We only got to the point where Ripley dreamed she was being chestbursted in the hospital. I got sick and asked my dad to turn it off (and so he did). I didn't understand what was happening to me at the time but looking back now, I was having my very first panic attack. I'm not sure how this happened but I almost immediately developed a fever and was actually sick for several days. The fever subsided but the chronic nausea and anxiety persisted. Up until that day I'd been extremely sheltered from horror. Seeing Aliens enactment of a chestburst nightmare completely shifted my personality. The change can actually be seen in photos. After that day, I was expressionless in most photos (I had previously always smiled or been laughing). A few months later on a Sunday between the morning and night church service, I saw the final 20 minutes of Alien 3 on tv while my parents were downstairs watching some movie my mom had rented. After seeing the queen burst from Ripley, my anxiety evolved into some kind of emotional obsession with Ripley as she fell into the furnace holding the queen close to her. The song from the scene played in my head constantly and I felt emotions that I can't really define to this day. Somewhere between infatuation and fear of my own impending doom. Seeing her fears come true took my own anxiety to the next level but it was somehow crossed with emotions that romanticized the experience.

I thought about having an alien come out of me every day for that entire year. The anxiety would feed the nausea and the nausea would feed the idea there was an alien inside of me which would further feed the anxiety. I couldn't be convinced it was just fiction no matter what anyone said and I spent the entirety of my 8 year old life feeling separated from my peers and doomed to be killed while they went on without me.

Around age 9 I pretty much realized it wasn't going to happen and the fear and chronic sickness faded. I decidedly avoided the Alien films at all costs for fear the panic cycle would come back.

Fast forward to 11 years old after I spent age 10 horrified I'd actually burn in hell forever one day (I imagined it like being locked in an oven and never being able to die or escape). Spending a year afraid of eternal burning flesh had a majorly desensitizing effect for previously held fears. I was at my uncles house for the day and decided to watch Alien 3 in it's entirety. In surviving it and no longer feeling fear, I proceeded with Alien and then Aliens. This was the point where I actually became a fan of the franchise. I watched all 3 movies obsessively and when Ressurection came out the following year, I insisted on seeing it in the theater. Have been a devout fan ever since.

I agree with you Kenan_LV223, Prometheus is an underrated film. In time, I feel like it will be regarded highly like that of the original Alien and Aliens. Welcome to the forums, by the way!