Erin Maxwell
In 1979, an unparalleled horror film set in the distant stars informed audiences, “In space, no one can hear scream.” And now, almost 50 years since the release of Ridley Scott’s Alien, audiences have a reason to scream again.
Set between the 57 years in which the crew of the USCSS Nostromo first witnessed Executive Officer Kane receive a fatal face hug from a newly-hatched alien organism to when Lieutenant Ellen Ripley was finally rescued from her derelict escape pod in Aliens, Alien: Romulus continues the universe created by Scott in 1979 with this latest chapter in the cosmic horror series.
In Romulus, director Fede Alvarez, who resuscitated the Evil Dead series and turned the tables on a group of thieves in Don’t Breathe, brings his particular brand of engaging doom and gloom to the revered franchise. His vision is far more bleak, more suspenseful, and more frightening than recent outings — 2012’s Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant — which were notably more focused on backstory than scaring the pants off audiences.
Known for its strong female leads, the “Ripley” of Romulus is Rain (Cailee Spaeny), an orphan from Jackson’s Star mining colony whose only family is a slightly impaired synthetic “brother” named Andy (David Jonsson). When a few scrappy cohorts come up with a plan to escape the seemingly never-ending servitude to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, they recruit Rain and Andy for their plan: board a derelict ship and liberate the hypersleep chambers so they can escape to a much better planet years away. Run by a MU/TH/UR 9000 computer system, the gang requires Andy to communicate with the vessel to help their chances for a better life.
(20th Century Studios)
However, they instead discover the Renaissance, an abandoned space station with far more on board than just cryopods. Unfortunately for the group, the station is not as abandoned as the young scavengers have hoped as dozens of newly hatched facehuggers make their acquaintance with the crew almost immediately.
The dark, grimy atmosphere of the decrepit space station gives the story the proper amount of dread, capturing the same foreboding experience as the original Alien. The combination of the dilapidated ship with the inexperienced young crew confined in almost claustrophobic conditions with terrifying and ravenous Xenomorphs taps into similar “haunted house in space” vibes that made the first film so effective. Alvarez creates a fright-filled exploit that builds on the space saga using classic horror tropes without having to fill the script with nonsense lore that dilutes the story.
Also starring Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Aileen Wu and Spike Fearn, the young cast is stellar in this interstellar terror tale, bringing new blood to the Alien universe, but nothing compares to the electrifying return of the Xenomorphs, who are just as ghastly and awe-inspiring as ever.
Alien: Romulus is a return to form, focusing on the gruesomeness of the creatures rather than the “why,” the “what,” and the “how” of recent installments. Thanks to Alvarez’s deft hand and a focus back onto the bipedal beasts that gave Alien its reputation as top-tier horror, Alien: Romulus is a heart-pulsating showpiece that both reinvigorates the franchise by injecting it with what it has sorely been lacking recently: fear.