It’s a universally accepted truth that Mondays suck. But not all of us take our Mondays working in space, and even less of us take them with the surprise, horrifying arrival of a Xenomorph. So some Mondays definitely suck more than others.
That’s the premise behind this brilliantly creepy fan film, Alien: Monday. Inspired by both the legendary ’80s sci-fi analogue aesthetic of the original Alien, and the retro-tinged design trends of anime of that era, the nearly 20-minute short was co-directed by Paul “OtaKing” Johnson and Claudia “Maki” Montealegre. Johnson took six years to animate the project, and was previously best known for his viral smash hit sci-fi short in a similar vein: TIE Fighter, a tribute to the legendary Star Wars simulator video game and ’80s sci-fi anime, released in 2012.
Johnson brings a similar blend of bright and bold anime coloration to Alien‘s world of retrofuturistic design language as he did with TIE Fighter, and Monday is the perfect way to get ready for Alien: Romulus‘ release next month—itself already trying to go back and ape the iconic feeling of the original Alien‘s view of the future, through a modern lens.
Regardless of form, it’s safe to say wherever you are in the Alien universe, Mondays suck just as much as they do in our own, if not more so.
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