Alien: Romulus hits theaters with a return to the science fiction horror genre, rather than the science fiction action genre that’s overtaken the franchise since Aliens. Let’s go over what works and what doesn’t in Alien: Romulus. Be advised: spoilers are ahead!
Compelling Cast
A solid cast helps Alien: Romulus succeed. Cailee Spaeny is fantastic as our leading lady, Rain. It’s nice to have a leading lady in an Alien film barely above five feet tall. As a fellow short lady, it’s nice to remind the audience that you don’t have to be tall to be bada*s. She’s smart and compassionate as well, which endears her to the audience.
Isabela Merced is compelling as Kay, though I wish she had gotten more to do. No matter the size of the role, Merced delivers. It would have been interesting to see more of her psychological horror at being the Monster’s Mother. That being said, the sheer terror in her physical performance in the birthing scene is phenomenal. Well done, Isabela!
The standout performance for me is David Jonsson as Andy. He gives a fantastic physical performance, going from meek and gentle to more actualized, intelligent, and calculating. It’s a perfectly measured and understated performance. His care for Rain will make you believe that androids can have emotions. Also, you named your android “Andy”? That’s adorable.
While we are dealing with an ensemble cast in this film, I name these three characters in particular because they each embody a Ripley-type role in Alien: Romulus. Rain rocks some Ripley Reeboks and carries the same gun Ripley used in Aliens. Andy delivers her signature line from Aliens when he descends on the xenomorph, saying, “Stay away from her, you b*tch,” in the measured tone that only an android can have. Kay is the Monster’s Mother, as Ripley is in Alien: Resurrection. These are well-done references to the original franchise.
Missing in Action: Character Development
Alien: Romulus is an overall solid and fast-paced film, but it sacrifices character development in favor of action. It clocks in right around two hours, which is a little shorter than most films these days. Even 15 more minutes at the beginning of the film to give us more character backstory would have been significant. While I found our cast of characters interesting, I felt almost nothing while they were taken off the board by the aliens. This is my main complaint about the film. This is not a slight on our cast members, as I think our ensemble does well with what they are given to do. It’s sadly not enough to make the majority of their deaths emotionally resonant for the audience.
Monster Mash-up
The creature effects and variety of xenomorphs in Alien: Romulus are fantastic. Alien: Romulus leans back into practical effects, which is the backbone of the Alien franchise. Because of this, the xenomorphs look real, and that’s because they are. Additionally, the directorial choice to put the majority of those monsters in shadow is a nod to the original Alien film. It also is much more effective than having the monsters out in the open most of the time. I appreciate a horror film that leaves things to my imagination. That’s far scarier than what I can see on screen.
It Has a Child
“The Offspring” is the real shocker for me in Alien: Romulus. Played by basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi, his massive 7’7” frame, combined with CGI and practical effects, is the monster I did not expect. The shots with Rain made her look even smaller next to Bobroczkyi’s “The Offspring” and added much to the horror she is facing.
Speaking of which, “The Offspring” is disgustingly grotesque, which is the point. It takes a lot to really shock me in a horror film these days, and I think it’s telling that while in a full theater, there was utter silence when “The Offspring” first appeared. I gasped and whispered, “Dear God.” I very rarely have that type of reaction. It’s shocking, effective, and the monster that I least expected in this film. “The Offspring” is like the failed Ripley clones in Alien: Resurrection, but with more xenomorph than human. Alien: Resurrection shows us what happens when a Xenomorph Queen gives birth like a human, rather than via egg. Alien: Romulus shows what happens when a human gives birth like a xenomorph. It’s horrifying enough that I hope we never see that again in the Alien franchise.
Another first we get in Alien: Romulus is the birth of a xenomorph drone. Like all Alien films, there’s a lot of birth imagery, but this is the most explicit. I could do without seeing one of those again, and yet the process adds to the horror of the film. You can’t look away, even though you know you need to run. The film also explains the rapid growth of the xenomorph. Additionally, it shows the difficulty of actually killing a xenomorph. Nuke it from orbit seems truly the only way to be sure.
A Surprising Return
Finally, I did not have the return of Ash on my bingo card for Alien: Romulus. I appreciate that they call it a “Rook” model, as opposed to the “Bishop,” which we will later see in Aliens. That being said, the deep fake with Ian Holm’s likeness didn’t work as well for me up close. The shots where you see him through a view screen or in shadow work much better, and like the xenomorph, he’s always scarier when you can’t get a good look at him.
I appreciate what the filmmakers tried to do with this, but I don’t think it works quite as well as they want it to, especially when considering that one of the big reveals in Alien is that no one on the Nostromo knew that Ash was an android. You can maybe get around that by saying that the Rook model hadn’t been given a major release yet in that part of the timeline, but even so, this part of the film didn’t quite work as well for me.
Fantastic Score
One of the things that did work for me in Alien: Romulus is the score. We have another exceptional score done by Benjamin Wallfisch. We heard from Wallfisch earlier this summer with his fantastic work on Twisters. Wallfisch does with Alien: Romulus what he did with Twisters. He utilizes themes from Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus, but makes them his own. He also adds more modern elements to the traditional symphonic score. Atop the raking strings, there’s also pulsating synthesized percussion that brings to mind the works of John Carpenter.
The way Wallfisch strategically places every instrumentation choice is masterful, too. Aside from the aforementioned raking strings and synthesized percussion, the clanging of a discordant piano feels like falling down stairs and clambering trying to get away from the xenomorphs on screen. Every single piece amplifies the horror and is anxiety-inducing. I am adding a few of these tracks to my Halloween playlist for some wonderfully scary atmospheric music. This makes the second score in recent memory where he’s done well with homaging and furthering the music of the original franchise films. Wallfisch now makes my list of favorite modern composers. I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of him in the Alien franchise.
The True Horror
While Alien is often heralded as one of the scariest movies ever made, the true horror persistent throughout every film in the franchise isn’t the xenomorph. It’s corporate greed. The xenomorph is referred to by the scientists in the film as the perfect organism. If perfection is the standard we’re trying to achieve and the monster is the perfect organism, then maybe they’re not the monster. We are. Humans create merciless AI. We attempt to bend other creatures to our own will, without thinking of the consequences. We do all of this in pursuit of profit and power. Alas, no one ever listens to the Dr. Ian Malcolms of the world. We never stop to ask whether or not we should pursue these things.
Alien: Romulus is an indictment of corporate greed and lack of environmental consciousness. Our leads are desperately trying to escape a life of indentured servitude on a planet where they can’t even see the sun. Just when Rain thinks she and Andy have served their time, they’re told their sentence is doubled. There’s no hope for them there, which is why they choose to board the Romulus in the first place and are mostly killed for their efforts. And what they’re killed by is yes, a xenomorph, but it’s a xenomorph that is cloned in a lab in the pursuit of corporate greed. It’s a modern-day parable that few have ears to hear, and that’s the true horror of Alien: Romulus.
Final Thoughts
Alien: Romulus is an aesthetic nod to the Alien franchise. This is Fede Álvarez writing a love letter to Ridley Scott, while also honoring visually honoring the other sequel films. Alien: Romulus is an interesting chapter in the Alien saga. It can be watched on its own and enjoyed, even without having seen the rest of the films. My main complaint is that it doesn’t really break any new ground with the franchise, other than with “The Offspring.” It hits all the same beats as the previous films without expanding on them.
Alien: Romulus is a great trip to the movies if you’re in the market for something exciting and scary. However, with the lack of character development, it doesn’t have the same emotional stakes as the other films. Even so, Alien: Romulus is worth seeing on the big screen, especially for the sound editing and the communal experience of terror. However, like any of the films released after Alien and Aliens, your mileage may vary.
Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.
