Photo: Li Carter

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A Nanaimo couple's maternity photo shoot has gone viral.

Not because of how sweet it is, but because of how gruesome.

Nicole and Todd Cameron had the unusual photos taken by photographer Li Carter after Todd came across a model at a garage sale of the creature from the Alien movie franchise that famously burst out of a character's stomach, and the rest is social media history.

"I knew Nicole wasn't interested in doing a traditional maternity photo shoot, since it's not really her thing, and not really my thing either," Todd told CTV. "So we thought, let's use this to shock people and make them laugh."

The images were taken at the McNab Corn Maze in Nanaimo, with an appropriately Halloween-ish backdrop of pumpkins.

After some standard couples type photography, they staged several shots in which the alien appears to burst from Nicole's belly, with blood spattering their shocked faces.

"Thought it'd be a cool story to tell our child at some point when they're a teenager or what have you, let our family and friends get a laugh out of it," said Todd.

Then, Facebook caught on – and so did Britain's Daily Mail, Pop Sugar, People Magazine, and Inside Edition.

His Facebook post has been shared 250,000 times.

Photographer Li Carter played right along.

"I would say it's very Todd, it's very Nicole. They're very passionate for Halloween," she said.

As for their real baby, "We're ninety-nine per cent sure that it's human," Todd joked.

– with files from CTV Vancouver Island