Some movies will satisfy you if you don’t have any expectations, or if you do, they should be modest. Extraterrestrials have long captivated horror sci-fi films. For decades, we’ve accepted a wide range of aliens created by filmmakers who had complete control over their appearance. Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, James Cameron, and others have all made significant contributions to the field of extraterrestrial films. At the same time, the majority of the remaining films are just variations on these. The extraterrestrial with the beautiful name “Moorwen” was given a folkloristic look in the 2008 film “Outlander.”
Howard McCain had always been fascinated with Old English folklore, particularly the poem “Beowulf.” McCain had always envisioned a 1992 film adaptation of “Beowulf,” which he transformed to science fiction in keeping with the style. As a result, Grendel, Beowulf’s main nemesis, had to be transformed into an acceptable alien life form after the film. Patrick Tatopoulos was ultimately able to design the required monster, which they dubbed Moorwen.
“Outlander” starts up where the tale left off, with two survivors from a spaceship that fell into Earth. One was a humanoid named Kainan, while the other was a Dragonoid named Moorwen. Scandinavians apprehended the former extraterrestrial and transported him to a nearby settlement.
His first priority was to exterminate the Moorwen, who had begun ravaging the nearby communities. Will he be able to ambush the creature that defeated him and caused the spaceship to crash? Let us learn more about the plot of “Outlander,” a film starring Sophia Myles, Jim Caviezel, Ron Perlman, Jack Huston, and John Hurt and written by McCain and Dirk Blackman.
It destroyed his world. He won’t let it destroy ours – Outlander: Released in 2008
Can you figure out what happens in the movie’s first scene? It is, after all, the opening scene of many extraterrestrial films. You must have figured it by now! A spaceship was approaching the Earth’s atmosphere, and it collided with a lake in Scandinavia this time. One of the two human-like beings died as a result of his fatal injuries, while the other recovered the computer, which revealed that he was on Earth.
The computer successfully but painfully downloaded the local language and culture directly to his brain. He armed himself with a flare gun and carefully advanced through the woods till he reached a freshly devastated village. Suddenly he was attacked by Wulfric, a warrior from a different village, and taken as a prisoner to the village of King Hrothgar. King was seen in combat with his daughter Freya, as the King wanted her to get married to Wulfric, but Freya denied it.
Wulfric was concerned when he informed the King about the demolished hamlet that Gunnar, the leader of the devastated village, could believe Wulfric had destroyed his village since Gunnar had slain Wulfric’s father. As Wulfric fiercely tortured the Outlander, he stated his name to be Kainan, approaching from the north while he was hunting a dragon. The people around him started laughing on hearing about the dragon.
Kainan eventually managed to free himself and resumed his search for the dragon-like monster. As many innocent individuals were slaughtered viciously by the beast, a crimson bioluminescent light appeared in the community at night.
As Kainan was interrogated, he revealed the secret of Moorwen as a ruthless creature who devastated villages while hunting people and animals brutally. He asked them to take him along as they hunted for the creature. Thus, a group of men, including the King and Wulfric, set out in search of the creature. He told the King that the Moorwen had rampaged his land just the way it was destroying his land.
However, while on the lookout for the beast, they were ambushed by a massive bear. Kainan battled valiantly, assisting the other men in the slaying of the beast. By this effort, Kainan was warmly welcomed as a Viking by the King and his soldiers, and he was particularly taken with an orphaned kid named Erik.
Gunnar and his followers assaulted the settlement of Hrothgar that night, but were beaten and escaped into the woods. The Moorwen attacked his soldiers as they escaped for their life towards Hrothgar’s village late at night. As they entered their boundaries, for the first time, everyone saw the Moorwen with their own eyes, and the first thing Boromir, one of Hrothgar’s men, said, ” Now, that is not a Bear!” Wulfric wanted to fight the Moorwen, but Kainan warned them that it was too powerful for an open challenge. They needed to trap it in order to kill it.
Everyone was encouraged by Kainan to construct a big hole in front of the entry gate and fill it with whale oil. When Kainan returned to his room, he discovered Freya had prepared a meal for him. He was aware that Freya was becoming interested in him. After that, he told Freya his story. He said that he came from a planet whose people, like the inhabitants of Earth, we’re looking for new territories to expand into.
Their search for land took them to the planet of the Moorhens. They destroyed all the Moorwens and built their colony, thinking it to be safe, and Kainan left for his next expedition, leaving his wife and son in the newly built colony.
When he came back, he was too late to realize that one Moorwen had survived the mass killing and later destroyed the entire colony that was formed. Moorwen hid in the spaceship of Kainan and caused him to crash on Earth. Freya gave him her family sword and said that she was given the sword to hand it to a proper man.
While the Moorwen was being chased by Kainan and Wulfric, it fell into the pit and was lit on fire by the townsfolk. However, the locals were taken aback when they discovered a newborn Moorwen assaulting women and children. Everyone came to their rescue, but King Hrothgar was killed in the battle. The adult Moorwen also came out of the pit in a burning state and started its rampage again as many people were killed, including Gunner, who was decapitated by Moorwen’s tail.
People began to leave the settlement while Kainan, Freya, and Wulfric returned to the lake to recover metal shards from the ship in order to construct better weapons. The creature attacked the boat and kidnapped Freya while Kainan was underwater. The metal shards were fashioned into sturdy swords by Kainan and Wulfric when they returned to the settlement. Their team proceeded towards the Moorwen’s lair as Freya awakened on a pile of mutilated corpses. She was about to be slaughtered by the monster but it was distracted by Kainan’s hunting group.
Before Boromir blinded it with the freshly fashioned sword, the young Moorwen killed many people. As Freya murdered the young Moorwen with one final stroke, Kainan managed to slip one of the new swords to her. The adult Moorwen then assaulted them at the cave’s exit, which ended in a massive waterfall. Wulfric was severely wounded, and Kainan prepared himself for the final combat. In a fierce battle that ensued, Kainan and Freya managed to knock off the Moorwen down the cliff, killing it finally.
As the approaching spaceship departed, Kainan returned to the ship, said his goodbyes to his wife in a coffin, and destroyed the computer that was transmitting a signal to the coming spaceship. Freya had watched all of the events and thought that Kainan had been sent by God, but he had chosen to remain at home. Kainan performed the last rights for King Hrothgar and Wulfric. Then he married Freya and adopted Erik as he became their next King.
That was a fantastic film in every sense of the word. The film’s box office performance is quite poor. Everything was perfect: Ian Graig’s fantastic set designs, Debra Hanson’s wardrobe designs, every actor’s performance, the background music. The action-packed drama and thrill keep you glued to the seat. It should not matter what the critics say, or the Rotten Tomatoes say, “Outlander” is an exceptionally well-executed and thoughtful film.
The picture is filled with gore, with the Moorwen killing and feasting on the bodies, and the finale is tense. The characters were well-defined in terms of the story’s timeframe. People were simpler and more open-minded when they were younger. It took one incident for the Vikings to accept Kainan into their tribe. When Wulfric was on death bed, he realized that Freya loves Kantian, but he never for once hesitated to declare Kanian his friend and the next King. Such actions are rare nowadays.
Bioluminiscent Predators Moorwen Explored
The word “Moorwen” is a warped version of the term “Morlock,” which H.G. Wells used to describe the savage humanoids of the future in his iconic, all-time blockbuster novel “The Time Machine.” McCain had given the creature a dramatic name and provided it with historical context. It was the planet’s sole surviving species after Kainan wiped out the others in quest of somewhere to colonize.
It is not known whether the Moorwens were aggressive by nature or the extermination of their species due to mere greed of acquiring land and cruelty had turned them so violent. Keeping everything in mind, Tatopoulos had researched drawings, tapestries, and sculptures depicting the Vikings’ dragon.
As said by Tatopoulas, ” I designed the Moorwen as a mixture of a bull and a gorilla. The animal is able to run very fast, swim, climb trees and do all this much faster than a human being because it moves on all fours. By contrast, when it hits its prey, it does so by standing on two legs.” The terrifying interlocking teeth were based on the crocodile.
As mentioned earlier, McCain didn’t want his alien to fall in the shadow of ”Alien” or ”Predator” and wanted a backstory of his monster rather than exhibiting just a killing machine. To highlight the tremendous power and strength of the Motorway, Tatopoulos gave it shoulders, a broad chest, a thick neck, and a powerful, narrow hip. We had been introduced to the incredible power of the Moorwens right from the beginning of the film when we saw the devastation it had created in Gunner’s village.
Now we get to one of the monster’s most notable characteristics: the idea of bioluminescence. Bioluminescence has been linked to a variety of aliens in various science fiction films. It’s commendable that Tatopoulas and his colleagues looked at recordings of abyssal species like cuttlefish and angler fish to figure out how they communicate.
That is how we saw that the Moorwens illuminated one way when they were luring the prey and a different way when they were in an attacking mode. The audience had been kept in great suspense from the beginning as we only got glimpses of this aggressive monster. The sight of the Moorwen standing in the dark, and suddenly illuminated in red bioluminescent light, to reveal itself gave quite a dramatic impact to its revelation.
Kainan had admitted that they would never be able to combat the creature face-to-face out in the open, and under his supervision, the Moorwen was trapped in a pit filled with whale oil and later set on fire.
Even though the alien was hurt, such a powerful fire was unable to kill it. All of Earth’s armaments were rendered ineffective by the Moorwen’s strong exoskeleton. Kainan realized this problem and brought different scraps of metals from his spaceship, which were transformed into swords that were strong enough to penetrate the tough skin of the monster.
The Moorwen’s descendants were a narrative surprise. When everyone was expecting the monster to be lured and fall into the trap, the young Moorwen attacked from a well in the village’s heart.
Kainan and the other hunters were able to approach the Moorwen’s lair through the well, where the audience was appalled to witness the mound of rotting bodies pursued by the two creatures. Another intriguing characteristic of the Moorwen was its bioluminescent green blood, which Special Effects Coordinator Tony Kenny produced with the use of safety light glow sticks.
The computer-generated model of the Moorwen was created by digitally scanning the drawings of Tatopoulas. A lot of effort was given to the motion and postures of the creature to attain perfection. Ultimately, McCain was delighted with the way the film and the creature effects turned out, but unfortunately, the movie was unable to receive the response it should have gained.
Why should you watch Outlander
As I previously stated, if you go into “Outlander” with no expectations, you will undoubtedly like the picture. Every component of the picture, including the Viking town set and costumes, was meticulously built in accordance with the deadline. A lot of dedicated research work for the creature effect deserves appreciation. I really don’t think box office results should be taken into consideration regarding the quality of a film.
Furthermore, if you are interested in Beowulf’s plot, the sci-fi adaptation may pique your curiosity. Also, if you like “Predator,” you might enjoy “Outlander.”
You cannot dismiss this film as a bad picture, nor can you praise it as a brilliant film that leaves an indelible mark on your mind. It’s somewhere in the middle when you just want to enjoy the movie because everything about it is good. So, let the ”Outlander” land in the endless watchlist that you have prepared, don’t let it land outside your mind.