Alien Romulus Movie Review: A Tense Return to Classic Sci-Fi Horror

Alien Romulus Movie Review Wow, this review is going to be more difficult than I anticipated it being. There’s just a lot that happens in the movie that’s not shown in the trailer. I would consider them spoilers, so if this review comes across as vague, I’m just trying to do right by you. So here we go.

“Alien Romulus” is a new Alien film. It’s what happens when “Alien Covenant” comes out, and then that whole “Prometheus” thing is just not going to be a trilogy. This is directed by Fede Álvarez, who directed the 2013 “Evil Dead.” Is it Fede Álvarez or Fede Álvarez? One of those has got to be right, right? Or not?

So in “Alien Romulus,” we follow this new young crew who board this derelict space station. No one’s around; everything’s dark, dingy, and creepy. There are holes in the ground. Why? What happened here? Well, we’re about to find out. Well, they’re about to find out. We already know. And you feel that love for the original “Alien” from the get-go. The tech all looks the same; it’s all old-school CRTs (that would be the tube televisions).

The Plot: A New Crew, A Familiar Dread

Kaylee Spain is the lead of this film. She’s the lead; she’s the heart. Her and David Johnson, who plays her brother, have a great dynamic. I like the dynamic between the two. Fede Álvarez does some really interesting things with their dynamic, with their relationship, ideologies, and how to go about the situation—what’s best for the situation. And David Johnson as her brother? I thought he was great. I felt he had a lot to do in the film, and I thought he stuck the landing really well.

Directorial Style: Fede Álvarez’s Vision

As for the crew, they’re broken up into two camps here. They’re brash enough for you to be like, “Yeah, I hope you bite it, and I hope it looks amazing,” or, “I’m rooting for you to get through this, but if you do bite it, I hope it looks amazing.”

I expected this movie to exist in a vacuum, in a bubble. I thought it was just going to be like, “Yep, Alien movies have happened, here’s just another thing.” It’s other people who just ran across the situation involving face huggers and aliens. But this movie did have moments and things where, if you’re an Alien fan, a fan of this universe, you’re gonna catch them, you’re gonna know them. And it’s not Easter eggs for nostalgia bait or anything like that; it just feels like the world they’re dealing with.

Well, there’s one thing in particular where I was like, “That feels more like it,” but on the other hand, I did like seeing it. And yeah, in terms of atmosphere and tone, this is definitely a film that’s throwing back to the film that’s patient zero in terms of inspiration for any of the sci-fi survival horror you might have enjoyed in your life.

Atmosphere & Tone: Claustrophobia in Space

That feeling of claustrophobic dark spaces—you’re in a spaceship or space station, there’s no real escape. That feeling of playing Doom with no ammo; all you’ve got is your fists, no berserk mode either. The tension—that’s what this film does well. “Alien Romulus” is tension and anxiety in a 2-hour bottle. That comes down to the sound design too—it’s really intense in here.

You don’t get a clear look at the alien because the people trying to hide from an alien aren’t going to get a clear look at the alien. You see as much as they see, which for a large section of this movie ain’t much. Less is more—that’s how the original “Alien” did it, that’s how this film does it. I appreciate it.

This movie does borrow from other Alien movies, sometimes other movies in general or pieces of entertainment, but definitely other Alien movies. There are more than a few scenarios in here where you’re like, “I recognize that,” but it’s done with a modern-day twist. Example: because it was in the trailer, stuck in a room with face huggers. They’re faster, more intense, there are more of them. We saw that in “Aliens,” when Ripley was stuck in a room with two face huggers. Now these characters are stuck in a room with a bunch of face huggers.

Sound Design: Enhancing the Horror

But I gotta say, I felt the tension in “Aliens,” in which it was new, and Ripley with just two face huggers, more than I felt the tension in the face hugger scene in “Alien Romulus.” It’s a bit ironic since “Alien Romulus” is throwing back to the “less is more” concept—except for face huggers, in which there are a lot more of them and they are aggressive. Am I concentrating on the face huggers too much? Possibly, but in terms of ratio, no more than the movie did. The face huggers were a huge threat in this film for the first half, easily. And I, while watching the movie, felt like you probably feel right now, which is, “I’m ready to move on from the face huggers if anyone else is.”

Though there is one cool segment in particular that they did with the face huggers, which I’ve also seen in other things, for example, “The Walking Dead.” But this movie, as best I can say it, has environmental elements that they have to worry about.

Final Thoughts: A Return to Form for the Franchise

Also, I do think the film goes on a little too long. Like, it ends a couple of times. I would have been fine with the first ending, and I was like, “Oh, it’s still going because we’ve had one, yes. What about second ending? Right, second ending, let’s—okay, here we go.” I mean, granted, second ending is leading to some creepy—just visually speaking, there’s a lot more body horror in this film too that I didn’t expect. I mean, you like an alien and be like, “Yeah, an alien busts out of someone’s chest; that’s what else was it?” In ways I can’t explain more so here, it’s like for the second ending, this movie wanted to go bigger. Everything feels bigger, but this film was in the pocket. It was in the Goldilocks zone when it felt smaller.

I do call BS on a couple of things. No spoilers though; it’s kind of cheap for me to be like, “I call BS, can’t talk about it,” that’s gotta be annoying. I apologize for that. But in terms of how all this happens, I was like, “Really, though?”

In the end, there are some flaws, but all in all, I enjoyed “Alien Romulus.” It dragged on near the end, got a bit weird, but with the film’s creepy atmosphere, tone, and sound design, it in large part did what it set out to do, which was bring Alien back to a horror film. I don’t get to say this enough, so I look for opportunities to say it: “Alien Romulus” is worth watching and worth buying on VHS.

So, “Alien Romulus,” have you seen it? What did you think about it? What’s your favorite and least favorite Alien movies? Or you can rank them if you want. Yes, include “AVP” if you’d like—that’d be a wild list. Alien films have had great, they’ve had ass. Can’t wait to see what you say. Whatever you think, comment below, let me know, and as always, if you like what you’ve seen here and you want to see more, click right here to see more.

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