Alien: Romulus
Director: Fede Álvarez
Written by Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues
With Cailee Spaeney, David Jonsson and Isabela Merced
Rated R
Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes
In cinemas from 16 August
by Ryan Silberstein, Editor-in-Chief, Red Herring
After three sequels, two crossover films and two prequels directed by Ridley Scott, Foreigner Franchise feels a bit directionless at the moment. No one has tried to continue Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) story after theresurrection (directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997), and Disney seems to have little interest in letting Scott complete his David trilogy. In many ways, this makes sense: Apart from Aliensevery successor to the 1979 original has more critics than fans. Positioning Alien: Romulus as a safe bet by the new Disney owners of the Xenomorphs – although it played a prominent role in one of their theme parks from 1989-2017) welcoming fans back – makes a lot of sense from the studio’s point of view. And the choice of director and co-writer Fede Álvarez, who successfully evil Dead brought back to life with his 2013 standalone film underscores this. But that’s not why we’re here.
If the goal is to remind people why they love this franchise, Alien: Romulus fulfills this instruction with flying colors. Packed with references to previous films, both big and small, there is a new edition of The Shot from Alien 3 – The Wonderful World of Aliensthe grease from Prometheus is mentioned, as is the existence of the Colonial Marines – Álvarez composed the rollercoaster version of the franchise. Everything you would expect from a Foreigner Film are there, but optimized to make it feel like a new experience and contain enough twists, turns and surprises to make it feel like a satisfying journey. And make no mistake, Romulus is a journey. It prepares us just enough to get to know our characters before putting them in the most stressful situations imaginable.
Like the first two films in the series, Romulus has a very straightforward setup. Rain (Cailee Spaeney) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson) work for the series’ true villain, the Weyland-Yutani Company, on a mining planet where the sun literally never shines. When her employment contract comes up for renewal just as she was about to reach her quota, she decides to follow her friends as they attempt to escape to an independent colony. It takes them 9 years to get there, and all they lack for the long journey are the sleeper pods. Conveniently, right above their planet is an abandoned space station in a deteriorating orbit. Of course, we know this heist isn’t going to go smoothly, and soon the small crew is overrun by facehuggers after stumbling into an onboard research lab.
All hell breaks loose, and the scenes where Rain, Andy, and their friends explore the abandoned station are the highlights of the film. Intermittent gravity cycles, facehuggers chasing them through temperature differences, and of course, highly corrosive acid blood are all challenges the characters must face as they try to return to their ship. Álvarez’s talent for horror invention is on full display, as in these sequences Romulus feels the most recent, offering us images and moments that feel fresh but hold their own against anything the previous installments have shown. Álvarez understands that the scariest form of Xenomorph is the facehugger, and leans into that in a way that no other film in the series has. Romulus also demonstrates an impressive mastery of tension and pacing, and the entire film modulates tone and terror perfectly. There are sequences in this film that are some of the most exciting of the entire year because Álvarez directs these sequences so well that the threat and problem-solving skills of the characters in danger are clearly evident.
