Alien From The Darkness - DVD & VHS

The all-female crew of the deep-space transport ship Muse is on a routine mission when they intercept a distress signal from a derelict cruiser drifting in open space. Aboard the ghost ship they find only bodies — all women, all dead under mysterious circumstances — and one survivor: a young woman named Flair, found in a sleep chamber with no memory of what happened. They bring Flair back to the Muse and detonate the wreck. Computer expert Hikari begins decrypting the derelict's data and discovers illegal cargo. But whatever was on that ship came with Flair, and one by one the crew of the Muse begins to fall — seduced and assaulted by something using Flair as its vector, desperate to reproduce using the only available hosts. Hikari, whose sister Yuri is also aboard, is the only one who figures out what Flair actually is in time to do anything about it.

Alien from the Darkness — known in Japan as Inju Alien — is a 45-minute adult science fiction horror OVA produced by Pink Pineapple under the PP Project label, directed by Norio Takanami, and written by Shino Taira. Released in Japan in 1996, the OVA draws heavy influence from Ridley Scott's Alien — isolated crew, distress signal, single survivor, parasitic reproductive threat — and was produced with notably higher production values than most hentai OVA of its era, including competent animation, effective framing, and a genuinely functional horror structure that reviewers have repeatedly noted would function as a coherent thriller even without the explicit content. The North American release by Media Blasters under its adult anime subsidiary Kitty Media was issued in two formats: a VHS dubbed edition under the title Alien of Darkness — running approximately 40 minutes with the majority of the more extreme content edited and a four-sided letterbox — and the subsequent uncut DVD release on May 27, 2003 at an SRP of $29.95, running the full 45 minutes with both English dub and Japanese audio. The DVD presents the uncensored complete version. Note: the VHS edited version released under the title Alien of Darkness differs significantly in content from the DVD — buyers seeking the complete uncut version should select the DVD.

Notable Staff

Director: Norio Takanami
Screenplay: Shino Taira
Studio: Pink Pineapple / PP Project
Publisher (North America): Media Blasters / Kitty Media (subsidiary)

English Dub Cast (Kitty Media):
• Bunni Foxx as Hikari
• Suzy Prue as Captain Sara (also in Shamanic Princess — Lena, Ninja Resurrection additional cast)
• Dylan McCarthy as Lindo
• Axy Carrion as Yuri
• Sharon Becker as Annie
• Chrissy Squirt as Hilda
• Georgia Lee as Keith
• Mina Sands as Elle

DVD / VHS Features (Kitty Media)

• DVD (May 27, 2003, $29.95, SKU: KV-DVD-0303, UPC: 631595030365): Uncut complete version (~45 min), English dub + Japanese audio, English subtitles, 100% uncensored
• VHS (earlier release, title: "Alien of Darkness"): Edited version (~40 min), English dub only, four-sided letterbox, majority of extreme content removed, lesbian content retained uncut
• Note: DVD and VHS are substantially different releases — DVD is uncut uncensored complete version; VHS is an edited 40-minute cut under a different title

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio (DVD) / English Dubbed Only (VHS)

Edition Details

Japanese Title: 淫獣エイリアン (Inju Eirian / Alien from the Darkness)
North American VHS Title: Alien of Darkness (edited version)
Runtime: ~45 Minutes (DVD uncut) / ~40 Minutes (VHS edited)
Director: Norio Takanami
DVD Release Year: 2003 (U.S. DVD Release, May 27 — Kitty Media / Media Blasters, $29.95)
VHS Release Year: Late 1990s (U.S. VHS edited release — Kitty Media / Media Blasters, titled "Alien of Darkness")
Original Release Date (Japan): 1996 (Pink Pineapple / PP Project)
Publisher: Kitty Media (Media Blasters adult anime subsidiary; acquired by Fakku November 28, 2017)
Rating: 18+ (Adults Only)
Region: Region 1 (DVD) / NTSC (VHS)
Note: DVD is full uncut uncensored version (45 min). VHS "Alien of Darkness" is edited (40 min) with extreme content removed and four-sided letterbox. Kitty Media was acquired by adult manga/anime publisher Fakku in 2017.
Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Horror
Themes: All-Female Crew, Alien Franchise Homage, Parasitic Alien Threat, Deep Space Horror, Yuri Content

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.