

Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami
Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash
Becoming Alien: The Beginning and End of Evil in Science Fiction's Most Idiosyncratic Film Franchise is Sarah Welch-Larson's acclaimed 2021 critical study of the Alien movies, exploring the themes, motifs, politics and philosophy of the long-running sci-fi horror series. This second edition includes a new chapter on the seventh film, 2024's Alien: Romulus and a foreword by critic Matt Zoller Seitz.
The Alien films are perceived to be a fractured franchise, each one loosely related to the others by the titular monster. They are nonlinear, complicated, convoluted: a collection of genre movies ranging from horror to war to farce. But on closer examination, the threads that bind these films together are undeniable. The series is a model of the cosmology described in Catherine Keller’s book Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming, which presents the universe as a cycle of chaos and relationship. In this second edition of Becoming Alien, Sarah Welch-Larson explores the Alien series through Keller’s lens. Her exploration unifies the Alien series into seven views of evil, its origins, and its consequences. Each film expands on the concept of evil set forth by its predecessors, complicating that conception, and retroactively enriching readings of the films that came before.
REVIEWS
“Sarah Welch-Larson is an exhilarating writer—thoughtful, playful, pointed, informed—and these sharp close-reads of the Alien films accomplish the impossible: they unify a seemingly tonally and thematically disparate group of movies, and have something new and vital to say about one of the most discussed franchises in modern cinema."—Jason Bailey, author of Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend
“With Becoming Alien, Sarah Welch-Larson has crafted a compelling and enlightening study of the Alienfranchise, rich with detail and acuity. Welch-Larson’s skillful prose weaves together criticism with a deeply human and personal perspective, and in doing so weaves together the fractured films themselves. You’ll want to savor every page of Becoming Alien’s profound insights as it encourages and challenges you to think more deeply yourself.”—Carrie Courogen, author of Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius
“As they’ve evolved, the Alien films have helped us think about the human desire for progress and profit at the expense of others in ways that reflect our reality. In her second edition of Becoming Alien, Sarah Welch-Larson continues her exploration of these themes in ways that movie fans, theology enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates smart culture writing will find enlightening—and maybe even a little frightening.”—Abby Olcese, author of Films for All Seasons
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sarah Welch-Larson is a film critic interested in feminist theory and theology, sad men in space, and stories about agency, creation, and androids. She lives in Chicago with her husband, their dog, and about two dozen houseplants.
Matt Zoller Seitz (foreword) is the editor-at-large of RogerEbert.com and the author of 13 books on film and television, including The Wes Anderson Collection and Mad Men Carousel.
All copies signed by Sarah Welch-Larson and MZS
MZS.Press is the online arts bookstore founded by author, critic, and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz and Directed by Judith Carter. It offers new, used, signed, collectible, and rare books on film, TV, music, photography, and the visual arts. The store was launched in 2019 on a different platform and has expanded to incorporate arts books published by MZSPress's private imprint: titles currently include Seitz's The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon and Dreams of Deadwood, about the HBO Western, and Walter Chaw's A Walter Hill Film.
Our deepest wish is to promote, encourage, and distribute work by small presses, academic presses, and individuals. Extraordinary work tends to get swallowed up on giant platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The titles featured here are personally selected by a group of curators and advisors, including Seitz and an array of critics, artists, journalists, educators, publishers, and arts mavens who are known for their ability to suss out what Seitz's jazz musician dad liked to call "the good sh*t."
In Honor of the greatest auteur of our time, Judith is using one of her favorite quotes by him.
"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present"
David Lynch (January 20, 1946-January 15, 2025)
Matt Zoller Seitz
Critic, Author, Filmmaker, MZS Press Creator
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large and film critic of RogerEbert.com; Features Writer for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, Contributing Writer for D Magazine and Texas Highways as well as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. His writing on film and TV has appeared in Sight and Sound, The New York Times, Salon.com, The New Republic and Rolling Stone. Seitz is the founder and original editor of the influential film blog The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine.
Seitz has written, narrated, edited or produced over a hundred hours’ worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image, Salon.com and Vulture, among other outlets such as Texas Highways and AARP. His five-part 2009 video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style was spun off into the hardcover book The Wes Anderson Collection. This book and its follow-up, The Wes Anderson Collection: Grand Budapest Hotel were New York Times bestsellers.
Other Seitz books include the New York Times bestsellers The Sopranos Sessions and Mad Men Carousel; TV (The Book), The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon, The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch and the new The Wes Anderson Collection: Asteroid City. He is also an interviewer, moderator, and film programmer who has curated and hosted film and TV presentations for the Museum of the Moving Image, IFC Center, San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, and other venues. In October 2024 he brought the legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone back to Dallas for a historic return to the city and the Texas Theatre, considered the biggest film event of Dallas in 2024 by Dallas Observer!
Judith Carter was in the Upscale and Luxury Hospitality Industry for most of her life. In 2004 she had a beautiful baby boy with Special Needs and put the pause on her career until 2017 to dedicate herself to him and then others, assisting and volunteering as a legal advocate ensuring the best medical care, evaluations and educations for Special Needs children and their families.
Matt and Judith were family friends for over 20 years. She was there with her family in support when his wife Jen passed away suddenly in 2006. Then just 6 weeks later while Matt was in Dallas; he and his Father, Dave, and Step-Mother, Genie, were there as support, when Judith was alone and her son received the first of many diagnoses that changed the trajectory of their lives. So it made sense in the turbulent year of 2020, Matt asked Judith to take over running the online store that has become MZS.press. The rest as they say is, "Their"-story.