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The Aesthetics of Fright (Dickstein‚ 2004)

How is the unheimlich represented in Alien (1979)?

    Freud wrote that the uncanny “belongs to the realm of the frightening, of what evokes fear and dread.” (2003, p. 123) and continues to define Unheimlich as “uncanny” or “eerie”, but “etymologically corresponds to ‘unhomely’” and that “the uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and had long been familiar.” This short essay explores this definition and compares it to Alien (Scott, 1979).