Alien: Romulus review: the series returns to the big screen in intense style

Since Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley (and Jonesy of course!) emerged as the last remaining survivors of the ill-fated Nostromo crew in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi game changer, the Alien series has grasped pop culture tighter than a facehugger. 

The franchise and its monster(s) have become among the most important in the history of cinema, and through its constantly transforming and widening mythos, there seems to be more of an appetite than ever to see the series return to its origins. Enter Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, a film that came with hype and hopes big enough to fill a terraforming bay, and which people prayed would take us back to the corrosive core of all we love about the Alien series. 

The film follows a small crew of space colonists who encounter the fight of their lives as they scavenge an abandoned space station for parts vital to their freedom. Not only returning to the suspense horror of the 1979 film and the pulsating action of James Cameron’s equally classic ‘80s sequel, Romulus also returns to a hand-crafted feel of days gone by, relying on largely practical effects and sets to make this cinematic icon the reason for sleepless nights again. And, against the odds, it completes its mission.

So very clearly inspired by survival horror video games like Dead Space and Alien: Isolation, Romulus is a brazen marriage of every era in this enduring and evolving franchise on the big screen. From Scott’s legendary original and Cameron’s aforementioned seminal sequel, to the warped darkness of the latter quadrilogy (especially Alien Resurrection), to Scott’s thematic prequels Prometheus and Alien Covenant. Resulting in a film that bridges the franchise in many respects, whilst showing it can stray away from Weaver’s Ripley and Michael Fassbender’s god complex synthetic David, and still remain very much in-keeping with the wild DNA of the Giger-spliced space terror it was birthed from. 

Not everything works in Romulus, with some narrative shifts and franchise callbacks creating distortion here and there, one particular potentially controversial “return” is likely to perturb as many as it gratifies, and there are some very full-on references that may be a tad much. While some who hated certain specific detours in the series’ past, will likely be unhappy that they are represented here again, and quite proudly in fact. Yet, Romulus is – like every film in the series – admirable in its embrace and pursuit of the dark, violent and the downright bizarre, and can be a surprising experience, that will probably grow in your mind and estimations through later re-visitations. 

Where the film could have settled easily for being a simple story, it is to its credit (and slight detriment at points to be fair) that it attempts to bring in all that came before, doing justice to Scott’s differing visions, while also going further with other filmmakers’ and artist’s previous ideas, and in particular the disturbing sexual symbolism behind the body horror that spawned this series’ iconic aesthetic. While refreshingly also expanding on the Xenomorphs themselves and their icky, organic, gooey biology in some brand new ways.

Álvarez’s film is superbly crafted, especially in its replication of the original’s lived in aesthetic and suspense reliant horror, and the Don’t Breathe director brings his A-game to the project, as does Benjamin Wallfisch’s terrific score, assisting the director in conjuring up a number of unique and interesting set pieces laced with sometimes unbearable tension and sustained thrill, and topped off by a nightmarish finale. While the young cast are excellent, especially Cailee Spaeny’s dragged through hell lead turn as protagonist Rain, and there is a revelatory star-making performance from David Jonsson as Andy.

Alien and Aliens may well remain the series’ benchmarks (and perhaps always will) but Romulus is a thrillingly gruesome horror sci-fi cinema experience that adores all others – and we do mean ALL – in the series. As its own alien infested space survival story is allowed to gestate in nasty and unusual ways. Many will feel a chest bursting affection for it!