'Alien: Covenant' gives SXSW a peek at bloody alien babies

Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if want to remain ignorant of the disgusting horrors that await you in the latest installment of the Alien film franchise.

We already knew "Alien: Covenant" would serve up a "backburster," but the new film has a "bloody mouth-slider-outer" too.

Before a screening of the original "Alien" at the SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin, Texas, director Ridley Scott previewed three sneak-peek clips from his new movie in the franchise, "Alien: Covenant," set to be released May 12 in the UK, May 18 in Australia and May 19 in the US.

A spokeswoman for 20th Century Fox, the studio behind "Alien: Covenant," said the company couldn't share its plans about releasing the clips publicly yet. So unfortunately we'll go on the almost illegible notes I scribbled in the dark. (Tip to directors: Explosions make it easier for people who are writing during your movie, thanks.)

The clips fill in some blanks left by the movie's earlier trailers.

The first clip showed the crew of the Covenant, a colony ship, detaching and flying a lander shuttle to the mysterious planet they've been sent to colonize. It starts on the Covenant's bridge, as Danny McBride's pilot character, Tennessee, talks via radio with the crew on the lander still docked to the ship, with other characters like Billy Crudup's Christopher Oram, the captain, standing by. There's some joking about boobs, because sure, and the launcher disembarks.

As it approaches the planet, the shuttle hits turbulence, and all the humans on board get edgy, while android Walter, played by Michael Fassbender, looks unperturbed (because he is, you know, an android). They make it through the rough air, and every nonandroid on board looks relieved.

The second clip shows the buildup and aftermath of the "backburster" neomorph explosion seen in the film's red-band teaser. Tennessee, over the radio, asks about a possible quarantine, and an anxious Faris, seemingly alone on the launcher, stumbles over responses, getting out "It's scary." Carmen Ejogo's character approaches the launcher from outside, calling for help, while soon-to-be-back-bursting guy leans on her, coughing up blood.

Ejogo pulls him into the exam room, with Faris behind her. Faris watches as the man's back starts to pulsate and bleed, and she books it out of there, locking the door behind her. She runs to the launcher bridge and radios Walter telling him that he and the rest of the exploratory crew on the planet need to return. Meanwhile, Ejogo's character is pounding on the locked door. When the man starts convulsing, she returns to embrace him gently, a moment the trailers omitted.

Then his back bursts open and a bloodied, chalk-white alien baby slithers out.

Faris runs back to the exam room, grabbing a gun on the way. Inside, the bloody neomorph attacks Ejogo's face. Lotsa blood now. Faris enters the room but slips on the blood on the floor, her firearm falling and discharging to alert the alien of a new human to attack. She scrambles to flee and shut the door behind her, but it closes on her foot. She pulls out her foot and limp-runs away, but the alien just headbutts the glass in the locked door until it breaks. He chases her, and her missed gunshots aimed at the alien trigger an explosion.

Meanwhile, the rest of the launcher crew approaches the craft from outside, but yet another man collapses into a seizure. He falls to the ground, with all the crew except Walter kneeling to hold his convulsing limbs. Then blood spurts from his mouth and another creepy alien baby comes spewing out. Walter just watches.

Finally, the third clip shows Fassbender again, this time presumably playing David, the android of "Prometheus." He and a stunned-looking Captain Crudup are in a cavelike laboratory. David explains what he's learned about this alien race in his studies on the planet, all in dialogue that went by way too fast for somebody taking notes in the dark.

He leads Crudup into an adjacent chamber, telling the still bewildered captain that he wanted to show him some "successes." Inside a dark, drippy, unlit cave, they walk around a collection of eggs. Crudup touches one of them, and the petals open. David tells him it's "safe." Something is moving under a membrane, and as Crudup peers closer, a facehugger explodes out and plants itself on Crudup's head. The captain struggles with the alien and then goes limp, while David passively watches.

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