Helmed by horror director Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don't Breathe), Alien: Romulus, set to premiere in theaters Friday, Aug. 16, follows a young group of space colonists on a scavenging mission who come in contact with a horde of terrifying creatures unlike anything they've ever encountered.
Taking place between the events of Ridley Scott's 1979 original, Alien, and James Cameron's action-packed sequel, Aliens, the new film successfully carves its niche into the celebrated franchise. Alien: Romulus is a worthy entry that pays homage to those predecessors. It delivers the terrifying goods and finally brings the creature horror back to outer space.
Civil War standout Cailee Spaeny leads the Romulus cast as Rain, a young woman on a mission to start a new life on a distant planet, far from the Weyland-Yutani mining colony she calls home. Andy, a synthetic person played by Industry's David Jonsson, is her family, friend and guardian. Isabella Merced, Aileen Wu, Archie Renaux and Spike Fearn round out the tight ensemble.
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Alien: Romulus delivers an original standalone story that takes the audience back to the franchise's roots. The scares are plentiful, the set design is gnarly, the performances are solid, and the xenomorphs are back on screen doing what they do best: hunting Weyland-Yutani employees and ripping them apart.
Before I continue with the review, let this be your spoiler warning. Scrolling beyond this point may expose you to an army of face-hugging spoilers. If you've yet to see Alien: Romulus and wish to avoid further story details, turn back now.
Alien: Romulus is easily the third-best entry in the film series. The cast performances, specifically those of Spaeny and Jonsson, establish and maintain the emotional stakes. Spaeny proves herself a commanding protagonist, filling the Ripley void (left by Sigourney Weaver) with grit and tenacity. Jonsson delivers an array of emotional nuance as Rain's synth companion, Andy.
Álvarez scaled back the story's scope, making for a close-knit fight for survival that fires on all cylinders. That's one of a handful of narrative similarities that connect this installment and Scott's groundbreaking original.
Both movies start with a slow-burn pace, allowing the character development and world-building to unfold organically. Each film features a tight-knit group fighting for survival in a singular location. And the set design fully embraces the overtly erotic influence of Swiss artist H.R. Giger.
Giger's biomechanical designs have informed the Alien universe for nearly five decades, but Romulus does something most entries have all but avoided: It firmly leans in to the challenging nature of his art. More than once, I squirmed at the imagery on screen. Gruesome (and goopy) kills soon followed.
The xenomorph reveals itself in Alien: Romulus.
20th Century StudiosÁlvarez loves practical effects in horror movies. With Alien: Romulus, the director tapped the original Stan Winston special effects crew from Aliens to return to the world they helped establish. They worked their creative magic here and brought the xenomorphs and face-huggers to life through animatronics and puppetry.
"I have this obsession with no green screens, so we built every creature and set," Álvarez told The Hollywood Reporter. "Everything had to be built so we were really living and breathing in these spaces."
This attention to detail gives Alien: Romulus a tactile, claustrophobic feel that the franchise has been missing for decades. The sound design and use of silence as a narrative tool allow the movie to breathe where it needs to and recall the original movie's tagline: "In space, no one can hear you scream."
Alien: Romulus is a standalone entry in the series, like Rogue One was to Star Wars's Skywalker Saga. That said, Romulus connects to the events and characters of the first two Alien movies and Prometheus -- surprisingly, so.
Romulus takes place before Aliens, but the sequel's influence is here aesthetically. Once the movie's second half kicks in, Romulus switches gears and notches the action way up. If there's one thing every Alien fan wants, it's to see a hero obliterating these toothy creatures with a pulse rifle. Álvarez knows this because he's a fan -- so he delivers precisely what the fans want.
Caily Spaeny plays Rain and David Jonsson is Andy in Alien: Romulus.
Murray Close/20th Century StudiosThere are a collection of rules and boundaries that have long since been established within the Alien canon regarding how the xenomorphs and face-huggers operate. Romulus is a fun thrill ride that plays in this familiar sandbox and takes the story into some unexpected places.
The face-huggers get an epic amount of screen time, allowing the creatures to come to spiderlike life in new and unnerving ways. A zero-gravity sequence involving the aliens' acid blood gives a delightfully jarring perspective on the monster's biological self-defense mechanism, which pushed me to the edge of my seat. A wild creative swing in the third act introduces a new threat to the mix that will certainly spark plenty of passionate debates.
Amid all my praise and love for this movie, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the flaws.
Though practical effects delightfully populate the film, CGI is used here, and the subpar quality of that computer generated imagery is distracting when it appears on screen.
The goal of any scene is to push the story forward. Romulus falls into the common trap of telegraphing its intentions. Some filmmaking finesse could've buffed out these storytelling edges. The last thing I want is for a movie to have characters make dumb choices in order to spark an important plot point. Unfortunately, this happens a couple of times.
Criticism aside, Alien: Romulus is a banger. It brings the terrifying glory back to the universe Ridley Scott built. Álvarez has made the Alien movie that fans have been yearning for. It rips, and it roars. The franchise is in good hands now. I can't wait to see what happens next.