Haunted Castles in Deep Space: Gothic Echoes of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)

This paper examines the resonances of the gothic mode in Ridley Scott’s science-fiction horror film Alien (1979) in order to carry out a comparative analysis of the ways in which the piece engages with the gothic motifs and patterns in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and adapts them according to the conventions of its time, genre and medium, and to the specificities of its aesthetic language. It is argued that, despite their differences in setting, premise and aesthetics, both pieces share core elements derived from gothic literature, which inform their narrative in two aspects: their use of space and the ontological configuration of their monsters. The old and isolated structures of Dracula have their science-fiction counterpart in the spaceships and abandoned locations featured in Alien, and the xenomorph mirrors the nature of Dracula, as it haunts the characters’ minds and bodies, as well as the spaces they inhabit, symbolizing an abject Other that lies beyond reason and knowledge, originating within the archaic archive of the unconscious. Ultimately, it is concluded that Alien shares with Dracula its fundamentally gothic understanding of both its space and its titular creature, thus intertextually linking both works together and demonstrating the adaptability of the gothic mode.