‘Alien: Romulus’ brilliantly combines Sci-fi Horror and Suspense
Deep space is once again the destination in the latest version of the Aliens gone wild saga. In “Alien: Romulus,” director Fede Alvarez centers on a group of young space colonizers who, while scavenging on a derelict space station, come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
A nod to Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s 1979 and 1986 ‘Alien’ films, British actor David Jonsson plays a synthetic human called Andy who along with his sibling Rain (Cailee Spaeny), Tyler, (Archie Renaux), Tyler’s sister Kay (Isabela Merced), and friend Bjorn (Spike Fearn) embark on an odyssey to find another colony. With limited crypto fuel, they find themselves stuck on a derelict space station where the only remaining residents are a terrifying species, and it becomes a race to survive and outwit the primitive creatures.
With a great combination of cinematography and score, Alvarez captures an intense and eerie atmosphere. There’s a nightmarish tension as they struggle to evade elusive creatures who have acid for blood, a love of heat and grow in both size and ferocity.
Anticipating the sudden, deadly reappearance of the monstrous alien will keep you on the edge of your seat and the first shocking, snarling show of teeth adds to the buildup of suspense as the question becomes who, if anyone, will survive.
Some of the extraterrestrial creatures include the familiar facehuggers, seen in previous “Alien” films. A parasitoid, a spider-like alien creature with bony fingers and human-looking flesh with a tubular tongue that enters its human host and implants a seed that will amalgam with the victim’s DNA. It has no eyes but tracks humans by their heat signature.
Creatures will continue to resonate with audiences, and this is a sci-fi horror drama that will delight fans of the first two ‘Aliens’ and reintroduce a classic to a new generation.
“The movie is an emotional rollercoaster and quite existential in many ways,” says Jonsson. “It talks about people’s general need to find peace, a place to call your land, your home,” shares the actor who recently starred as the lead in “Rye Lane” for Searchlight Pictures.
A sci-fi/horror-thriller that takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots, it gives the franchise a new spin and is an original story set roughly 20 years after the first “Alien” movie and about 37 years before “Aliens.”
‘Alien: Romulus’ opens exclusively in theaters on August 16.
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television and film. She serves as the Entertainment Editor for Trendy Africa.