| “ | Beauty has never been so terrifying | „ |
— Tagline |
| “ | Terrorizing Manila with its beauty! | „ |
— Tagline |
The Alien Woman (エイリアンウーマン) is a 2024 Japanese-Philippine science-fiction horror film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and written by Hiroyuki Yatsu, with Angeli Atienza also credited as screenwriter. Loosely inspired by Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers and Toho's The H-Man from the 1950s, it stars Ysabel Ortega as the film's titular character.
Development began as two seperate projects; a romance film starring Ortega with Atienza writing the screenplay, and a sci-fi horror film to be produced by Kitamura with a screenplay by Hiroyuki Yatsu. Due to Toho Studios prioritizing Human Vapor and GMA Pictures prioritizing Green Bones, the two seperate projects were combined into one film as a co-production between Toho Studios and GMA Pictures.
Released to Japanese theaters by Toho on November 1, 2024, it received mixed reviews from critics, criticizing the story while its special effects were praised. The film was later given a theatrical release in the United States on December 1, where it was more positively received.
Synopsis[]
After travelling into a remote island to observe a meteor shower, Erika begins acting strangely upon returning to Manila, while mysterious killings are happening around the metropolis; the victims are all seemingly related to Erika. Authorities initially believe the incidents to be the work of a serial killer, but with the investigation efforts of a disgruntled police officer and a Japanese biologist, they were able to discover the horrifying truth; Erika is actually an extraterrestrial creature disgused as her and is responsible for the killings.
Plot[]
Erika Ocampo is an average but sweet college student at San Agustin University, located in Intramuros, the historic center of Manila. She is on a relationship with Stephen Fernando, while her closest friends are Alyssa Santos and Nicole Rosales; all are also students in the same university. After receiving a low grade on astronomy, Alyssa tells Erika of an upcoming meteor shower, which will take place around August 16. Erika is skeptical that it will be visible in Manila due to light pollution, and decides to travel alone into the remote Aurora Island, located in the Philippine Sea[note 1].
On that particular night, Erika and a group of people on the island successfully witness the meteor shower, fascinating her. Meanwhile, a larger meteorite enters Earth's atmosphere and explodes over the South Pacific Ocean. Several hours later, a liquid black slime is washed ashore on Aurora Island, which appears to be a living lifeform as it slowly moves by itself. As Erika returns to her hotel room, the black slime also enters and transforms into a humanoid shape. It proceeds to brutally kill Erika by ripping her heart off, before further transforming into a duplicate clone of her.
After spending the rest of the night learning human intelligence, the creature manages to mimic and imitate Erika's behavior and personality. By morning, the creature, now pretending as Erika, leaves the hotel and returns to Manila. The corpse of the real Erika would be eventually discovered later, but the local authorities were baffled, as Erika is clearly seen to be alive by the surveillance cameras at the ferry port. To avoid confusion and to protect the island's reputation as a tourist destination, it was decided not to release the corpse's identity to the public.
Back at the university, popular student Sophia Collins and her best friend Danica, attempt to invite Erika and her friends to their house party, but Erika declines. Later that afternoon, instead of going home, Erika follows Sophia to her house, and while alone in the bathtub. Erika proceeds to kill Sophia by drowning her. Danica later discovers Sophia's corpse and begins suspecting Erika, but the Manila police department dismisses claims that the incident was a form of murder and believe that Sophia got drowned by accident, further upsetting Danica in the process.
The next day, Danica confronts Erika and brings her to the school's rooftop, where out of frustration, Danica manages to have Erika confess the truth behind Sophia's death. After revealing that the conversation was actually recorded on Danica's phone, Erika suddenly pushes Danica off the building, killing her. The authorities continue to believe that the recent incidents are not murders but rather freak accidents, and conclude that Danica committed suicide. However, former police officer David Mariano believes the incidents were not coincidental, but police chief Ricardo Alonzo dismisses his claims.
As more days pass, Erika's mother Lorna is beginning to notice her daughter's increasingly strange behavior since her return from Aurora Island, and decides to call Stephen to ask any unusual behavior relating to Erika recently. Stephen approaches Alyssa while at the campus, only to find out that Alyssa has the same suspicions as Lorna; they begin to suspect that Erika might be replaced by an identical clone, a common symptom of the Capgras delusion. As a result, Stephen contacts David and decides to join in his own investigation, starting with the two travelling to Aurora Island, where Erika went.
With the help of local residents, they find out that an unidentified corpse was found on the island several days ago, along with a strange black substance being washed ashore. David manages to collect a sample of the black substance in a nearby beach. The two later find out that the corpse was already cremated, therefore it couldn't be identified anymore. Because of this, David contacts his friend and former partner, Carlo Gonzales, to gather any information available regarding the recent incidents, while the biological samples were sent to renowned biologist Dr. Masada in Tokyo for further study.
Meanwhile in Manila, Vivian Marquez, Erika's teacher at the university, was strangled to death inside of her own car at the campus parking lot. Following the incident, the authorities now believe that the mysterious deaths in the metropolis to be caused by a serial killer, which causes Ricardo to slowly realize that David's claims earlier are actually correct. It is then revealed that David was actually suspended in the past after a hostage situation went wrong, resulting in the deaths of the hostages and humiliating the reputation of Manila's police department in the process.
Because of the recent events in the metropolis, a city wide curfew is enacted, while school principal Mylene Hermosa makes the difficult decision to suspend all classes at San Agustin University. After coordinating with the local authorities of Aurora Island, Carlo manages to find out that the unidentified corpse is actually Erika. David and Stephen now realize that the real Erika is actually dead, while Dr. Masada discovers that the black substance is actually an extraterrestrial lifeform, finally revealing the truth; Erika is actually an extraterrestrial creature disgused as her.
David and Stephen conclude that the extraterrestrial creature is also responsible for the killings, and proceeds to warn both Lorna and Alyssa. The Manila police department refuses to believe that an alien is behind the incidents, insisting on a serial killer. While at Nicole's house, Alyssa witnesses Erika killing Nicole by snapping her neck, proving Alyssa's suspicions. Two police officers arrive just in time and fights off Erika, only to discover that conventional weapons such as bullets have no effect on her. Stephen also arrives and rescues Alyssa, while the two officers are killed by the creature.
Dr. Masada tells David of the creature's weakness; high temperatures. Due to this discovery, David comes up with the plan on luring the creature into an abandoned oil refinery. Following the incident at Nicole's house, the authorities now believe that an extraterrestrial creature is responsible behind the killings, with the government beginning to discuss countermeasures against the creature. As Dr. Masada recreates the fire experiment for the authorities, the government realizes that at least 85,000 people must be evacuated from Pandacan district, which contains an abandoned oil refinery.
As the evacuation begins, large portions of Manila are in traffic gridlock, prompting David and Stephen to board a train of the LRT Line 1 en route to the refinery, but the creature, still disgused as Erika, catches up and proceeds to kill the train driver, before sabotaging the train itself. With the train still accelerating and skipping stations, David realizes that the creature is already on board, and the two attempt to escape by forcefully opening one of the train doors. The creature then reveals itself, and slowly walks toward them. David successfully opens a train door before throwing a grenade to the creature.
David and Stephen proceed to jump off the speeding train, while the grenade explodes and destroys the whole train, also derailing it in the process. The creature, however, still survived the resulting explosion. Arriving at the oil refinery, they find out that the place is still filled with gasoline, and begin setting up explosives. The creature arrives and injures Stephen, while David successfully ignites the creature on fire, finally revealing its true form. The two manage to escape the refinery just before the explosives detonate and igniting the entire facility in the process.
The fire continues to spread to nearby structures, and eventually engulfing a large portion of Pandacan district, which was successfully evacuated, while firefighters continue keeping the flames contained to the evacuated areas. Reporters ask Dr. Masada if the creature was defeated, only to warn that Erika in the city of Manila might not be the only one, as the creature's origin is then revealed, suggesting that it could reappear again somewhere in the world; as the meteorite exploded over the Pacific Ocean, it sent the creature's cells anywhere around the ocean.
A post-credit scene shows Alyssa several months later; the events surrounding Erika and the university seemingly traumatized her, but is confronted by an unknown assailant who proceeds to kill her by slitting her throat.
Staff[]
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Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
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Cast[]
  Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
Additionally, Ysabel Ortega also portrays the creature's humanoid form. Jenzel Angeles was the initial choice for Alyssa Santos, but the role ultimately went to Hannah Arguelles. |
Appearances[]
Monsters[] |
Weapons, vehicles, and races[] |
Production[]
- Main article: The Alien Woman/Development
The film's production initially started as two seperate projects under two individual studios; a romance film under GMA Pictures, and a sci-fi horror film under Toho.
Initial concept: The H-Man remake[]
Around the late-2000s and early 2010s, horror films by Blumhouse were becoming popular to the general audience, resulting in a resurgence of horror films throughout the decade. Japanese filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura approached Toho for a remake of its 1958 classic The H-Man, with a screenplay written by Hiroyuki Yatsu, who wrote the film adaptation of As the Gods Will in 2014. However, due to the success of Pacific Rim and the 2014 reboot of Godzilla, Toho prioritized on reviving the Godzilla franchise, placing Kitamura's horror film into development hell for several years. By 2016, the studio released Shin Godzilla, the 31st film in the Godzilla franchise, which also contained elements of horror.
Co-production with GMA Pictures[]
With Shin Godzilla a commercial success, Toho opted to produce another Godzilla film in the style of the Heisei era of Godzilla films, with its subsidiary Toho Studios leading development. The studio then entered on a partnership deal with Philippine film studio GMA Pictures, after discovering the country's past interest in producing kaiju films. The finished film, titled The Return of Godzilla, received mixed reviews when it was released in 2018. The partnership deal was not exclusive to a single Godzilla film as initially thought; therefore, both studios could co-produce more films in the future.
Following The Return of Godzilla, Toho began pre-production on a sci-fi disaster film that was in development since 2007, which was later confirmed to be another co-production with GMA Pictures. By 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, #JusticeForLove: End of the World was released to generally positive reviews and becoming the highest grossing Philippine film of the year. Toho would follow the same formula used in #JusticeForLove: End of the World for their own production of Godzilla Minus One, which proved to be very successful and earning the studio's first Academy Award.
YsaGuel romance film[]
In the Philippines, the unprecedented success of #JusticeForLove: End of the World is credited with the recognition of its cast, including Ysabel Ortega; she would receive more prominent projects in the following years, starting with the 2022 series What We Could Be, in her first lead role alongside Miguel Tanfelix, also marking the debut of the "YsaGuel" love team. The pair continued on their appearances in Voltes V: Legacy and Firefly in 2023, both of which were also successful, further growing their popularity among the audiences.
For 2024, GMA Pictures opted to produce a romance film starring Tanfelix and Ortega; the studio approached Angeli Atienza to write the film's screenplay, who also previously wrote Firefly. Although no details about the film were announced, it was slated for a late 2024 release, with a possibility of becoming a entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival. One of the possible reasons for the film's cancellation may have been to the production of My Future You, a similarily themed film that eventually became a entry to the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Development[]
After the commercial success of Godzilla Minus One in late 2023, Japanese studio Toho finally picked up Kitamura's horror film from development hell and was given at least $5 million of budget. However, with Toho beginning to distribute their film rights for adaptations, the project was transferred to its subsidiary Toho Studios, which already had a similar project in mind; a television remake of The Human Vapor[1]. Therefore, the studio refused to produce the film, unless changes were made to differentiate it with Human Vapor.
With Hiroyuki Yatsu refusing to change the screenplay, executives of Toho Studios approached GMA Pictures to co-produce the film, as previously done with The Return of Godzilla and #JusticeForLove: End of the World. Angeli Atienza was selected as co-writer by the executives of GMA Pictures, who had just finished writing Firefly. Her task was to rewrite the screenplay that Yatsu originally wrote to differentiate it from the source material; among the major changes include the creature now a single extraterrestrial entity, the lead characters being college students, and have it take place on a university.
By the time pre-production began, GMA Pictures announced another film under their production, Green Bones, with Angeli Atienza also serving as the film's writer, resulting in the executives to finally scrap their plans for the untitled YsaGuel romance film. A compromise was made; Tanfelix and Ortega were cast for the lead roles in Kitamura's horror film instead, with no other actors considered. When Kenji Sahara declined to portray the film's biologist, due to his retirement at acting, Yatsu rewrote the character into a direct tribute to Dr. Masada in The H-Man, although it resulted in the character having less scenes. Sahara's role in the finished film was billed as a special participation.
It was decided from the outset that the film will not be a part of the Metro Manila Film Festival, following the controversy that led to #JusticeForLove: End of the World being disqualified from receiving any awards at the festival's 2020 edition, with Green Bones serving as GMA Pictures' official entry instead. Some additions were made by Kitamura to the film after reading the finished screenplay, including a post-credit scene depicting Alyssa's death by an unseen assailant. Hannah Arguelles commented it as her "most-challenging" scene to perform.
Filming[]
Kitamura wanted the film to be shot on-location in Tokyo, although due to Toho Studios already began filming Human Vapor in the same city, while also beginning pre-production for Shin Rodan and Godzilla Plus Two, the latter two were seen as bigger projects by the executives of Toho Studios, Kitamura received little to no support from Toho, and shooting was relegated to the Philippines instead, with GMA Pictures supervising the budget used during filming. The majority of the film was shot in Manila; Sienna College in Quezon City stood in for the fictional San Agustin University, while Fortune Island and the town of Nasugbu in the nearby province of Batangas was used to depict Aurora Island. Marbling Fine Arts provided all of the film's practical effects, supervised by Atsuki Sato.
For the train sequence on the LRT Line 1, a one-car LRTA 1000 class was used during filming, which was shot at Central Terminal and Pedro Gil stations during late midnight, to minimize service disruption on the line, while a 1:20 scale model was built for the explosion and derailment scene. The miniature set consisted of a short stretch of Taft Avenue, the elevated Line 1 viaduct, and a 2-car 1000 class train.
Post-production[]
Despite the film's limited budget, the film still makes use of visual effects, primarily done by Digital Domain. Kitamura's connection to Hollywood managed to get him a "crack team" of 15 visual effects artists to work on the film's 60 shots, led by American visual effects supervisor Jay Barton. The alien's transformation sequence was the most complicated process of the film, requiring numerous test runs. Looking at the original The H-Man for reference, they also gathered sample footage from Terminator: Dark Fate to create the final effect of the alien transforming into Ysabel Ortega. Ortega herself was scanned into a digital model for five shots in the alien's transformation sequence. Additional visual effects, such as little pieces of the slime moving as it crawls, or digital sparks on when the train is derailed, were also implemented to enhance the scenes.
Marketing[]
In anticipation for the film's release, the Light Rail Manila Corporation promoted the film with the use of wrap advertising on some of their trains on Line 1, with the majority being the third-generation trains. The marketing coincided with the partial opening of the line's South Extension, which was inaugurated on November 15; with commercial operations beginning the following day[2].
Theatrical releases[]
- Japan - November 1, 2024
- Philippines - November 29, 2024
- United States - December 1, 2024
Reception[]
The film received mixed reviews from Japanese critics, while Western critics gave it a more positive reception, though many have compared the extraterrestrial to characters such as Venom and the T-1000. Many found the story to be "absurd and more comedic", while some were impressed with the film's special effects, especially the train explosion scene. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The critics consensus says that, "The viewers are watching a decent horror flick with top-notch effects that is The Alien Woman, with a villain that is basically Venom from the Spider-Man movies." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 based on 25 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Video releases[]
Toho DVD/Blu-ray (2025)
- Region: 1 & 2
- Discs: 2
- Audio: Tagalog (3.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital for DVD, 3.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio for Blu-ray)
- Subtitles: English, Japanese
- Special features: Trailers, promos, and footage from previsualization and storyboards (15 minutes); alternate and deleted scenes (8 minutes), VFX breakdown (22 minutes); general behind-the-scenes featurette (13 minutes)
Though the film is not available on home media in the United States, an HD version of the film can be rented or purchased on the Philippine version of Prime Video, along with Firefly[3]. Unlike Godzilla Minus One, The Alien Woman is not available on the Japanese version of Prime Video.
Remake[]
- Main article: The Extraterrestrial Exterminator
Despite the film's middling reviews, The Alien Woman was commercially successful enough to inspire an American remake directed by Tim Miller and starring Kathryn Newton, titled The Extraterrestrial Exterminator. The film was released on November 26, 2027 by Paramount Pictures, received mixed reviews, and bombed at the box office, grossing $132.4 million against a budget of $110 million.
At around the same time, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to produce an adaptation of The Human Vapor in the following years, which would be revealed to be The Invisible Man vs. The Human Vapor, written and directed by Leigh Whannell.
Trivia[]
- The extraterrestrial lifeform featured in the film, while unnamed, bears similarities with the Space Amoeba from its debut film.
- Aurora Island as seen in the film, is fictional; while there is a province with the same name facing the Philippine Sea, it has no outlying islands.
- The character Dr. Masada is obviously a reference to a character of the same name in the 1958 film The H-Man, that was also portrayed by Kenji Sahara.
- The train seen in the film is empty, suggesting a 24-hour operation like the New York City Subway. However, in reality, the LRT Line 1 does not operate at late night hours.
Notes[]
- ↑ While the island is actually fictional, the island is presumably located several kilometers offshore of Aurora province, based on its name and location.
- ↑ The H-Man is based on a story by Hideo Unagami.
References[]
This is a list of references for The Alien Woman. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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