H.p. Lovecraft inspired scene in Aliens?

[Wicked Nick]

Im a huge Lovecraft fan and I always find it facinating how often his work pops up in movies. The other day Aliens was on Cinemax, and when it got to the scene were Ripley enters the egg chamber with the queen, I decided to watch it in slow motion. There is a long camera shot were the queen is reviealed from the egg sack all the way to her body. Its the positioning of the body which interested me, as it fits very closely to the discription of the Chtulhu Idol from the "Call of Chtulhu.
"It reprsented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with a octopuslike head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long narrow wings behind.This thing which seemed instinct with with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of somewhat bloated corpulance, and squatted evily on a rectangular block or pedestal."
 The queen squats on her egg sack, the spikes on her back give her the appearance of having wings, and the hands on her long arms are placed against the side of the face with the fingers hanging out before the mouth giving the appereance of tentacles. There are additional similaritys but I'll let you find them yourselves. It looks to much like the Chtulhu Idol discription for me not to be intrigued.

[Gwangi]

Both Alien and Aliens seem very Lovecraftian in nature.  A dark foreboding entity lurking in the unknown darkness.  Of course the creature wasn't evil, it was just acting according to its biology.

[Oldskool138]

Yeah, I don't think Lovecraft could have came up with characters like Bishop, Apone and Hudson. 

Giger was probably influenced a bit by Lovecraft but his artwork (to me, at least) looks like a fusion of the biological and mechanical.

Lovecraft is just awesome...but if were to go back in time and meet him at a cafe (or opium den) on Thayer Street in Providence, he'd come off as a huge prick (from what I've heard).

[nshumate]

In the original script for Alien (long before Giger was involved in the project), the alien was explicitly described as having a cephalopoid head.  So Lovecraft's been at least a minor influence from the early days.

[Spiff]

Always thought the queen looked like one of 'The Brood' from the X-Men comics, myself.

[sideorderofninjas]

Actually, the Brood were introduced a couple years after 1979's Alien. 
 

[horseshoe crab]

Both Alien and Aliens seem very Lovecraftian in nature.  A dark foreboding entity lurking in the unknown darkness.  Of course the creature wasn't evil, it was just acting according to its biology.

Technically, so are Lovecraft's monsters.

[Alex]

I've never quite got why people think of Alien as having any Lovecraftian connections. I find the arguments for weak and tenuous at best. If it increases your enjoyment of the series though feel free to think what you like.

[RCMerchant]

Man, this thread is old- 2007. I joined in 2006.

[Archivist]

Giger's work directly inspired Dan O'Bannon when he wrote the screenplay of Alien.

Dan showed HR Giger's Necronomicon (1977) to Ridley Scott, who then asked Giger to do character designs and world designs for the original Alien movie. The title of the compendium is taken directly from the name of a fictional grimoire that Lovecraft wrote about repeatedly in his work.