A NEW film in the Alien series is set in Manchester’s shopping mecca the Trafford Centre, its creators have confirmed. 

Alien: Trafford follows a xenomorph outbreak in the high-end retail location, contrasting shoppers’ desperate attempts to escape with their purchases against the corporate owners’ fight to avoid any damage to their brand identity.

Film critic Emma Bradford said: “You’ve seen chestbursters erupt from a ribcage in a fountain of gore before. But it has so much more impact in a perfectly pristine Apple store.

“I’m not ashamed to admit I cried out ‘My God, not the MacBooks!’ And when humanity takes the fight to Selfridges the tension really hits a peak because one drop of spilled acidic blood could make an Alexander McQueen coat completely unsellable, even at discount.”

Viewer Tom Booker said: “Everyone’s trapped in the Trafford Centre. Not by aliens, just because everyone’s parked like arseholes, which happens quite often.

“The chase, where desperate families run for the exits while alien claws clatter on the Tuscan marble flooring behind them, is thrilling even before they duck into a back-to-school sale in Smiggle they can’t reasonably pass up.

“It’s so exciting when different franchises collide. I shivered in terror when the xenomorphs threatened the Tag Heuers.”