Alien: Romulus (2024)

Although technically a sequel, Alien: Romulus is essentially a remake of Ridley Scott’s Alien, with some added elements of James Cameron’s Aliens. There’s more to it than the visuals and insider references for the fans, which include nearly identical set designs, similar creature and makeup effects, and lines of dialogue taken directly from the Cameron and Dan O’Bannon screenplays; it’s apparent in the overall plot structure, beginning with a small crew on board a space station, continuing with characters falling victim to the monsters hunting them, and ending on very specific notes of uncertainty. None of this makes it a bad movie. If anything, it’s one of the better entertainments of the summer – and yes, that includes the overhyped, overrated Deadpool & Wolverine.

I admit that I was wary of Alien: Romulus in the months leading up to its release. That’s because I knew the director and co-writer was Fede Alvarez, whose unwatchable remake of Evil Dead forced scene after scene of nauseating, gratuitous gore onto audiences. To my great surprise and relief, he exercised restraint with Romulus. Oh, it has its fair share of gory scenes, none more disturbing than the birth of a very unnatural baby, the details of which I won’t spoil for you. Still, when it comes to makeup and special effects, nothing in this movie goes over the top. Even the chestburster scene – which, in an Alien film, is obligatory – is surprisingly mild. In fact, it may be the least gory of the scenes featuring blood.

To be clear, Romulus is not perfect. It suffers mostly from being too familiar. Unlike Scott’s Alien, in which everything was fresh, Romulus is the latest chapter of a franchise that has by now become very well known. As a result, there’s no sense of mystery, no buildup of suspense, no way of being truly horrified by what unfolds, even with the visceral scenes of alien creatures attacking and killing. What was shocking in 1979 is now routine. For me, the most significant missing piece was allowing the story to unfold slowly. I’ve repeatedly observed that active scenes in horror movies are less scary than the quiet moments that give characters – and, by extension, audiences – time to savor the winding tension, to imagine all the terrible things that can happen.

Taking place about twenty years after the events of the original film, the small cast of characters consists of young people plotting to escape their exploited, dead-end, literally toxic existences on a mining-colony planet. To pull this off, they have to sneak onto an orbiting corporate-run spaceship and steal some necessary components. As is the case in just about every horror movie, things don’t go according to plan. That’s because the spaceship is a laboratory specially made for breeding the now famous xenomorph alien species and harnessing specific traits contained within its genetic code. This was made possible by the rather unlikely recovery of the creature Sigourney Weaver killed at the end of Alien, found floating amongst the debris of the Nostromo.

Only two of the characters are noteworthy. One is the orphaned Rain (Cailee Spaeny), who dreams of a new life on an unpolluted planet, where the sun isn’t perpetually blocked by noxious black clouds. The other is Andy (David Jonsson), an android fashioned by Rain’s late father to be her protector and surrogate brother. His initial programming – simple-minded and meek, with a penchant for corny dad jokes – eventually conflicts with a new prime directive, the result of an upgrade from a source I won’t reveal. Most of the remaining characters are little more than stock players from slashers and monster movies, personality quirks and all. I actually hoped for one of them to be killed off just on general principles. Discover for yourself whether or not this happens.

I’ve always taken issue with movies made with only a fan base in mind. Although this movie falls into that trap – I can’t think otherwise when you conspicuously include a layer of glowing blue mist, or a plastic drinking bird, or the immortal line “Get away from her, you bitch!” – it’s redeemed, at least in part, by brief expository scenes. A certain amount of exposition is necessary for those unfamiliar with the original films, Alien especially. Such audiences may enjoy this movie more than I did. They won’t have a years-long history with the original film weighing on them. For me, Alien: Romulus is a success, but it doesn’t equal what Ridley Scott achieved in 1979. Alien was then and remains now a masterpiece of the horror genre.