Dédalo Short Teases Long-Fingered Aliens And Bloody Encounters
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As much as I love space horror movies, there’s no denying that the sub-genre could stand a few healthy doses of originality. Most of that kind of film either fall into the “monster is killing everyone slasher-style” school, such as the recent The Last Days on Mars, or they take a more batshit-heavy take on the unknown, as Event Horizon attempted to do. Portuguese filmmaker Jerónimo Rocha will soon be releasing his fourth short film, Dédalo, and while the teaser above makes the film seem like it could be just another derivation of Alien, it looks like Rocha nailed the first rule of horror: if you’re going to make a monster movie, you be damned sure that monster looks freaky as all hell.
The 11-minute short gets a brief logline, which probably means it will be short on exposition and long on hiding while being sweaty. It takes place on the titular Dédalo, a space freighter/refinery, where a woman named Siena (Sofia Helena) tries to survive while trapped inside with an “infestation of diabolic creatures.” IMDb calls one of the beasts a “Panmorphya Zenopod,” which sounds like something I definitely wouldn’t want to take home to after a long night of drinking. Not that I’d be driving.
Because there’s not much to go on in the way of plot, we’re left with a couple of outside shots of a ship hovering in space and a long-fingered creature with spikes all over it. The shot of it just hanging out in the background of the ship’s machinery room is reminiscent of Freddy Kreuger giving boiler rooms a bad name, but I’m anxious to see this creature in action. I seriously doubt this one woman is going to be capable of getting away from this guy. Just look at him.
I will not be impressed if these creatures’ skin is as thin as wet toilet paper. Is it wrong of me to want a space thriller where the alien wins, but doesn’t know what to do with itself aboard a human ship? Really long fingers crossed that Dédalo is that film.
Follow the film’s Facebook page to stay informed on when the film will be available to all audiences. In the meantime, check out Rocha’s insane 2009 multimedia comedy Breu, which takes a fear of the dark to extremes.
