It’s been nearly 40 years since Ridley and the crew of the Nostromo made the fateful decision to investigate that distress call, bringing them face-to-face with one of the universe’s most fearsome predators. While you still have time to finish up your facehugger costume in anticipation of the worldwide celebration of Alien Day on April 26th, Twentieth Century Fox has decided to start the party early by launching several creative initiatives including partnering with the USC School of Cinematic Arts to exhibit props and art for the film and launching a search for filmmakers with their own unique vision to add to the Alien canon.

Partnering with Tongal, a global creative community specializes in connecting established brands to independent creators, they reviewed over 500 submissions, narrowing it down to 6 teams who were given unprecedented access to the films’ creatures and lore to bring their stories to life. The first four have been screened at Emerald City Comic Con and C2E2, with the final two coming exclusively to WonderCon in Anaheim on Saturday, March 30th, before their public release. Fox recently invited us out to check out the full set, so here’s an idea of what to expect. Don’t worry, I won’t get into spoilers, lest I incur the wrath of the Queen.

Alien: Containment

Chris Reading

While I’m sure each of these directors could easily shoot their own Alien feature, with roughly 10 minutes allotted, each of them seems to find their own facet to focus on. Here it’s paranoia. Stranded in deep space aboard an escape pod following a xenomorph outbreak, four survivors try to piece together how to survive and discover who among them might be infected. This one feels as much like John Carpenter’s The Thing as it does an Alien short, using the threat of the Xenomorph to explore how we deal with trauma and respond to the potential of an unknown threat.

Alien: Specimen

Kelsey Taylor

Botanist Julie is working the night shift in a colony greenhouse with her faithful assistant, Maggie the Doberman, when the lab goes into full shutdown, leaving her wandering the dark hallways, terrorized by the sounds of something lurking in the shadows. This one really plays up the isolation with a single character left completely vulnerable with only a flashlight and a dog by her side. The darkness ratchets up the sense of inevitability and the set design is a nice departure from a lot of the gritty metal with a considerable amount spent of plant rentals to capture the feel of a greenhouse.

Alien: Ore

Spear Sisters

Lorraine is a miner working for a planet mining company that is on its last legs after failing to hit pay dirt. She’s been wearing herself down doing this work for so many years but she has a daughter, who works in the mines herself, and grandchildren to support. During a routine excursion into the depths of the mine, her unit comes upon the body of a fellow miner who seems to have met a gruesome end along with some giant nasty-looking eggs. This short had the biggest cast of all and a real sense of community, that there was more at stake than just the lives of the crew on screen. With an iconic hero moment and some great xenomorph animation, this one has echoes of the plight of the Nostromo crew in the original film with the teams brave stand against overwhelming odds.

Alien: Night Shift

Aidan Brezonick

A colony supply depot is just about to lock up when two space truckers come knocking at the door looking for supplies and a hard drink. The workers are suspicious of these two but end up letting them in after a bit of begging only to find that one of them is violently ill. There’s a strong sense of camaraderie and a playful adversarial relationship between the workers and seeing how they respond to these dodgy characters makes for some interesting drama. This one relies heavily on the strength of its human interaction but isn’t entirely bereft of xenomorph action.

Alien: Alone

Noah Miller

Hope is the only member left aboard the derelict chemical hauler Otranto after being abandoned by the rest of her crew several months ago. She seems to be getting by okay, all things considered, finding peace in the simplicity and repetition, but she’s determined to get the ship back operation again and to make her way back to civilization by finding a way into the restricted lab. This isn’t an easy one to talk about without spoiling, so I’ll just say it’s probably the short that does the most to subvert your expectations of what an Alien experience should be. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s superior to the other more core themes but it is a nice change of pace.

Alien: Harvest

Benjamin Howdeshell

The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester has only minutes to reach an evacuation shuttle with the aid of a motion tracker to alert them to the presence of whatever it is that is tearing apart their ship. Now this one is all about fan service and not wasting any time getting to the goods. They may be celebrating a film known for its restraint in what to show and when, but here they jump straight into the climax, giving us non-stop xenomorph terror with some really sharp editing that manages to keep the horror atmosphere alive and avoiding becoming a purely action-oriented experience.

Following the screening, there was a Q&A with the directors and perhaps the most interesting insight to come out of that was that each of these shorts was self-funded with different production teams throughout the US, UK, and Canada. What makes that so surprising is that it feels more like a singular Alien anthology TV series with different writers/directors at the helm. It’s remarkably tonally and technically consistent, with each team managing to capture the feel of something with considerable financial and creative backing. It is a familiar experience and it seems like the focus was placed more on capturing the essential atmosphere of the original film rather than trying to take the franchise too far out of its comfort zone but I think the dedication to authenticity is something series purists will appreciate. Don’t despair if you can’t make it out to WonderCon as these shorts will be released on a weekly basis on IGN starting March 29th before being featured on the upcoming 4K restoration Blu-ray release on April 23rd and will also be available on the official @Alienanthology social channels and AlienUniverse.com, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes content beginning May 3rd.