The Alien: Romulus Trailer Proves Facehuggers Are Scarier Than Xenomorphs

It's easy to see why "Alien: Romulus" will blow away audiences when it premieres on August 16. The first "Romulus" trailer showcased a facehugger infestation almost too gross to watch. The second trailer ups the ante with more horrific moments, including the movie's protagonist, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), coming face-to-face with a full-blown xenomorph. However, this preview also places plenty of emphasis on those pesky facehuggers, clearly indicating the film's going to pay a lot of attention to these creatures, which is definitely the right move to make.

The xenomorph is understandably considered one of the greatest movie monsters of all time. It's even arguable that a xenomorph queen would be more powerful than Godzilla. However, one could assert that facehuggers are truly the scariest monsters within the Alien franchise. Yes, a xenomorph is a big scary beast with acid blood that has a second mouth coming out of its main mouth. No one's arguing against the countless nightmares the xenomorphs have inspired. But there's something far more intimately terrifying about the facehugger's concept. 

This is a creature that attaches itself to a victim's mouth, impregnating the host with an alien that will burst through the person's chest. It feels so much more like a violation of one's bodily autonomy before ultimately kicking the bucket. On top of that, the person is merely a host for the next generation of xenomorphs, aiding in the aliens' efforts to eradicate any other living thing in their vicinity. 

The above trailer has several images highlighting why facehuggers and humans getting impregnated with alien babies are what to watch out for in an Alien movie. There's the heart-pounding shot of an individual's chest cavity being illuminated as something pounds on the inside. Additionally, there's a disturbing close-up shot of a facehugger trying to attach to a human. The monsters come up frequently in the YouTube comments, with @Nicholas_Chen_ writing, "Looks like they fully understand how creepy the facehuggers are, and [maximized] its horror potential."

It's even worse when considering the full extent of how facehuggers impregnate their hosts. "Alien" #4 from Marvel Comics (from Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo) details this process in-depth, not only chronicling how the facehugger inserts the embryo into a human but how it then keeps the human alive to protect the embryo through the use of filtering sacs. These are the fleshier appendages on the facehuggers' sides that provide the human with oxygen to keep it alive just long enough for the baby xenomorph to burst out. 

If a xenomorph bursts its secondary mouth through someone's skull, at least they're just dead. However, a human that gets a facehugger attached remains alive, perhaps even feeling the embryo growing inside them. Removing the facehugger isn't enough, as evidenced by Kane (John Hurt) in 1979's "Alien." His crew removes the facehugger, giving him autonomy for a brief period of time until the chestburster comes out, resulting in the best kill ever within the Alien franchise. 

Given the facehugger scenes in the second "Alien: Romulus" trailer and the shot of the facehugger horde from the first teaser, it's clear these creatures are going to be a point of interest in the horror film. And that's a great move because of the primal fear associated with facehuggers. A xenomorph will just kill you, but there are fates worse than death. 

A central tenet of the body horror subgenre is how it represents a significant fear in all people — the idea that your body becomes something alien to you. Every person deserves bodily autonomy, but a facehugger strips that away. After it attaches, the host becomes nothing more than an incubation chamber until the spawn is ready to come out. Whether the facehugger is removed or the person remains alive due to the filtering sacs, the host stays breathing, aware that something isn't quite right. When encountering a xenomorph, the victim may not have enough time to ruminate on their mortality. With a facehugger, you know you're doomed but can't do anything to stop it. 

The "Alien: Romulus" trailer alone is frightening viewers, as @tyleru96 comments, "The [close-up] shot of the facehugger shoving its trach tube down the victim's throat is the stuff of nightmares." It would seem director Fede Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues understand the sheer terror that comes with facehuggers, arguably the most alien-looking thing within the series. The trailers so far only provide a few minutes of footage, so one can only imagine the continuing carnage facehuggers will spread when "Alien: Romulus" comes out on August 16.