The Alien Franchise Technically Has One Christmas Movie (But You Could Argue for Two)

The Alien franchise isn’t associated with the holiday season, but it has a duo of Christmas connected movies. When it comes to sci-fi/horror movies, most tend to gravitate to any time of the year – except for the holiday season. Halloween is the biggest exception, with monsters and aliens regularly making appearances on cinema screens in October (alongside the Halloween franchise’s own Michael Myers).

However, some sci-fi/horror movies buck the trend and either release during the Yuletide season, take place during Christmas, or both. The Alien franchise is one such example. Despite the films largely keeping their distance from the Christmas season, two have gone out of their way to bring a semi-Christmas spirit to their respective stories.

Prometheus Takes Place During Christmas

Ridley Scott took the Alien franchise back to the beginning with his 2012 prequel Prometheus. Set in the year 2089, Prometheus follows the crew of the titular ship as they venture to the moon LV-223 to investigate the origins of a race of beings known as the Engineers, who may have connections to early life on Earth millennia ago. Being an interstellar adventure, the journey of the Prometheus takes four years to complete; with the entire crew in hyper-sleep for the journey, the ship arrives on LV-223 in December of 2093.

For the crew of the Prometheus, their excursion to LV-223 is far from a holly, jolly Christmas, with the mission going awry and the crew running afoul of an awakened Engineer and other alien lifeforms as vicious as the xenomorphs of the Alien franchise. Nonetheless, Prometheus, on the most technical of levels, does meet the criteria of being a Christmas movie due to the time of year it takes place. Even so, Prometheus does little to emphasis any real Christmas connections in the story itself, but that wasn’t the case for an earlier movie in the series.

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Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem Was Released At Christmas

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem picks up directly from where Alien vs. Predator ends, with a newly hatched “Predalien” causing the Predator ship to crash land in Gunnison, Colorado. As a xenomorph outbreak begins in the quiet suburban community, a lone Predator (dubbed “Wolf” in the credits for his similarity to Harvey Keitel’s Pulp Fiction role) arrives on Earth to take out the xenomorph scourge and keep the Predator’s existence a secret to the world. That certainly doesn’t sound like the plot of a Christmas movie, but 20th Century Fox didn’t care, with Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem arriving in theaters on December 25th, 2007.

While there’s no real Christmas story elements in Requiem, the holiday season connection was heavily featured in the movie’s promotional materials. The poster and trailers for Requiem were released with the tagline of “This Christmas, there will be no peace on Earth.” Additionally, the Requiem trailer included the holiday season classic “Silent Night” as part of its soundtrack. Even if Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem doesn’t fit the traditional bill of a Christmas movie, 20th Century Fox’s marketing department really went out of their way to sell it as one.

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An Alien-Themed Christmas Movie Could Be A Unique Entry In The Franchise

Despite their tangential connection to the Christmas season, neither Prometheus nor Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem are traditional Christmas movies, but that doesn’t mean the Alien franchise can’t make a movie in that vein. Though the Christmas season is associated with joy, cheer, generosity, and togetherness, plenty of genre movies have made a name for themselves by telling high-stakes life-or-death stories during Christmas.

Die Hard is the definitive example of a Christmas action movie, and 2024’s Terrifier 3 brings the relentless blood and carnage of Art the Clown’s slasher spree to the holidays. An Alien movie set on Earth explicitly during the Christmas season could be a real standout in the franchise, bringing the franchise’s terror and survival themes into a Christmas setting. Prometheus and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem didn’t go any further than dipping a toe in Yuletide waters, but an Alien movie that dives right into the pool could bring some real horror movie scares and sci-fi fun into an R-rated Christmas movie.