Alien 2: On Earth

Alien 2: On Earth
Cast & Crew
Directed by	Ciro Ippolito (as Sam Cromwell) Biagio Proietti (uncredited)
Produced by	Ciro Ippolito Angiolo Stella
Written by	Ciro Ippolito
Starring	Belinda Mayne Mark Bodin Roberto Barrese Benny Aldrich Michele Soavi Judy Perrin Don Parkinson Claudio Falanga
Music	Guido De Angelis Maurizio De Angelis (as The Oliver Onions)
Release Information
Release date(s)	April 11, 1980
Distributed by	Cinema Shares International Distribution (1980, USA) Fiesta Films (1981, Canada)
Running time	92 min.
Country of Origin	Italy, United States
Budget	ITL 400,000,000

Alien 2: On Earth (Alien 2: Sulla Terra), also known as Alien Terror and Strangers, is an unauthorized 1980 Italian sequel to the 1979 American film Alien, written and directed by Ciro Ippolito. The plot has little connection to the original film. The film features a score by Guido De Angelis and Maurizio De Angeli, performed by them under the pseudonym Oliver Onions.

Plot

As the world awaits the return of a crew of astronauts from a deep space mission, a young woman named Thelma Joyce appears on a television talk show to discuss caves. Soon after her interview begins, Thelma has a horrible psychic vision.

After the spacecraft returns to Earth missing its occupants, a girl on a beach discovers a weird, blue pulsating rock. Her mother soon finds her with her face ripped off.

Thelma and her husband Roy meet up with their friends at a bowling alley. After a short gambling session, they leave to go explore a cave.

The group stops at a roadside cafe' to buy food and change into their caving gear. Thelma's friend Burt discovers a blue rock that he desides to keep in his pack. The group can't figure out what type of rock it is.

The group finally arrives at the cave, and quickly rapells to the bottom to set up camp for the night. Thelma tells Roy that she feels that something horrible is about to happen, but Roy calms her down.

Thelma's friend Jill discovers the blue rock that Burt dropped while rapelling the previous day. Before Jill can touch it, the rock opens up and a Facehugger attacks her face. Thelma sences what is happening and panics. Roy calms her down, then decides to go find Jill's body.

Roy rapells down into a hole and finds Jill, alive and with her face intact. He straps her to a lifter and she is lifted up to the rest of the group. Jill is set aside by herself, still unconcious. While the group is taking pictures of the many rock formations, a Chestburster erupts from Jill's face and attacks Burt's neck. Burt is dragged upside down as the creature slices his neck repeatidly untill his head falls off.

The "Faceburster" quickly grows into a mature Alien and slaughters the group one by one, multiplying with each kill. Thelma and Roy manage to outrun the Aliens and escape the caves. They jump into their car and drive towards the city.

On the way to the city, they discover a police car, but no police officers are in sight. They stop at the roadside cafe' again, only no one is there. Roy tries to call for help on a payphone, but no operator is available. They get back into the car and continue to drive to the city.

Thelma and Roy finally get back to the city, but strangely, they can't find anyone. They stop at the bowling alley to find that it's empty, too. Roy goes to the back, only to be killed by an Alien waiting there. The Alien chases Thelma through the bowling alley, untill she hits it in the head and leaves.

Thelma runs through the empty city streets, calling for help but getting no answer. She finally stops yelling and sits down in an intersection. Suddenly, text shoots at the screen, warning the audience "You may be next!", meaning that the Aliens have taken over Earth.

Release

ALIEN 2 ON EARTH Trailer - The Cinema Snob

The original theatrical trailer for Alien 2: On Earth

Alien 2: On Earth was released theatrically in Italy on April 11, 1980 and in West Germany on March 19, 1982.

The English-dubbed version of the film was never released theatrically in the United States. Instead, it was released directly-to-video under the title Alien Terror. That version of the film is slightly different. The color is darker, making it hard to watch, especially the cave scenes. The sky at the end of the film is tinted red, for unknown reasons.

Alien 2 Blu-Ray cover

On March 22, 2011, Midnight Legacy re-released the English-dubbed version of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States under its original title, Alien 2: On Earth. The re-release includes fully remastered picture and audio. This version of the film is longer than any other version, and includes deleted scenes and trailers.

Alternate Titles

Alien 2: On Earth has had a confusing release. Since its original release, the title has been altered, twisted, or sometimes completely changed from the original title, making the film very hard to find sometimes.

International titles for Alien 2 were:

Alien 2: Sulla Terra (Alien 2: On Earth) - Italy (Original title)

Alien 2: To Teras sti Gi (Alien: The Monster of Earth) - Greece

Alien Volta a Atacar (Back to Alien Attack) - Portugal

Alien, die Saat des Grauens kehrt zurück (Alien, The Seeds of Horror Returns) - Germany

Le Monstre Attaque (The Monster Attacks) - France

Alien 2: On Earth- USA (DVD and Blu-Ray release)

Alien Terror - USA (VHS release)

Strangers - USA (Alternate VHS release)

Reception

Reception to the film was mixed to negative. Currently, the film holds a 28% Approval Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 3.7/10 on IMDb.

Adam Tyner of DVD talk wrote "James Cameron once summed up his follow-up to Alien as 'forty miles of bad road'. Alien 2, meanwhile, is 'eighty-four miles of bad, period'."

The Blu-Ray release of the film, however, has received more positive reviews from critics and fans alike.

Trivia

• The plot in the film Alien takes place in the year 2122 AD. This film, however, appears to take place somewhere in the 1980's, even though its story is supposedly set after the events on the Nostromo.
• The Chestburster bursts out of the victim's face rather than the chest in this film. Some fans have called it the "Faceburster".
• The Aliens themselves are barely even seen in the film. All that is ever seen are arms, legs, shadows, and POV shots.
• The "Faceburster" appears to have the ability to slice off heads with its tail.
• The eggs in the film barely resemble the eggs from Alien . In the original film, the eggs were grey-green, leathery and opened on top. The eggs in this film resemble rocks, are blue and pulsate. They still open on top, though.
• Since Alien 2 is an "unauthorized" sequel (meaning that it wasn't approved by Fox, the company that released Alien), it has never been released in any Alien film collection or boxed set with the other Alien films in the series. Therefore, the only way to find the film is the rare Alien Terror VHS or the Midnight Legacy DVD release, which is far easier to find.
• Despite intended to be a sequel, it is, for the most part, considered a rip-off instead.

Gallery

Alien Terror VHS cover

The Alien Terror title card. The number "2" was sloppily covered in post-preduction.

The egg in the film.

Thelma watches as a Faceburster is about to attack Roy

Faceburster erputing from Jill's face