The reason why face huggers are so scary...

Face huggers... the name alone is enough to send a chill down your spine. The sight above sends another one. I've talked to not a few friends about the Alien films, and most of them say that the face huggers are scarier than the fully grown aliens. Of all the sci fi monsters over the decades, why is it that something so simple is arguably one of the scariest things of all?

I think the answer is simple. Face huggers are rapists. They forceably pregnate their victims, and are indiscriminate (man, woman, child, beast, fish, fowl, anything is fair game). Then there's the fact that the rape always results in childbirth, as it were, and the "mother" always dies in the process.

Like all great sci fi of this kind, the underlying message is that humans have become complacent about being at the top of the food chain. This, as well as the rape connotations, are not explicitly spelled out but suggested, and just like the alien egg that swells in the escophagus, this notion grows in the minds of the viewers. If you want more information on face huggers or aliens, click here.