Ever since Ridley Scott’s 1979 game-changing Alien hit our screens, which managed the hybrid of horror and sci-fi so successfully, the movie has spawned seven other films, with only one getting close to the brilliance of the original, the 1986 James Cameron direct sequel, Aliens. The rest may have been flawed but fascinating or down-right awful and pretentious; nothing has even got close to the original or the first sequel. That is, until now. Alien: Romulus has taken inspiration from the first film and just gone for that mix of genres. The result is the best Alien movie since Aliens.

Rain dreams of seeing the sun. Working in a mining colony that is drenched in darkness, she wishes she could escape. When told that her allotted time on the planet has been extended, she and her android, Andrew, are promised a chance to leave by taking over an abandoned spacecraft on the outskirts of the planet by her friends and fellow workmates. Arriving, they realise this is a spacestation that is hours away from destruction, they also discover that it is not abandoned but something is living on board.

Director Fede Alvarez is no stranger to the horror genre, having directed the reboot of The Evil Dead and the house invasion thriller Don’t Breathe. He knows how to build tension, and here he does just that. He takes his time to allow us to explore his world-building and the handful of characters that will be part of his story. Like the original, nothing horrific or shocking happens for at least 45 minutes into the film, and Alvarez understands that we have been gripping the seats waiting for the shocks to occur.

The film’s strength is the world in which these characters live. The darkness and gloom of the mining planet are captured brilliantly, with the gang of renegades ready to escape living in a stationary spacecraft. Once they arrive on the space station, we are treated to familiar computer screens and images from the original Alien: complete with Mother, life pods, dark corridors and grinding metal shutters. As this film is set between the period of Alien and Aliens, this makes sense as it is part of the  Weyland-Yutani company.

What also helps is that Alvarez wanted the xenomorph and the rest of the effects to be practical and the sets to be built, just like they were in the first film. This allows the characters to live in this world, and the creatures are real, heightening the horror and tension. The film is also brimming with Easter eggs so that hardcore fans can smugly recognise elements from previous films.

As far as the horror is concerned, the film is brimming with well-executed set pieces, from a sequence where the cast has to move through a room filled with face huggers that come right out of Alvarez’s own Don’t Breathe to an interesting way of handling the acid blood from the xenomorphs using anti-gravity. There is also an appearance from previous characters that is a huge surprise. Still, it also happens to be a weakness of the film, considering everything else put in place to make it as realistic as possible.

The cast does a good job. Cailee Spaeny, who was so good as Priscilla Presley in the biopic, is given the chance to show she can handle action roles, while the real star is David Jonsson as the android, Andrew. The star of the brilliant Rye Lane has to give two different performances as his character goes from a joke-filled brother to a confident company robot that follows a change in orders. He is the most sympathetic of all the characters.

Alien: Romulus will have some series fans complaining, as we know they will, no matter if the film is outstanding or not. I thought it was brimming with interesting new ideas, had adequate shocks, and the final act was utterly bonkers. Still, it had tension and gore, and it was far better than Ridley Scott’s most recent Alien entries, Prometheus and Covenant. It’s not as good as the original, but no one should try. It is definitely the third-best in the series.

4 out of 5

Director: Fede Alvarez

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Rosie Ede

Written by: Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues, (characters created) Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett

Running Time: 118 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 15th August 2024