HOLLYWOOD—I have been waiting for this movie since I first witnessed the trailer several months ago. I am a massive fan of horror, but more important than anything I am attracted to suspense. It is a difficult task for some filmmakers to intertwine horror and suspense in a way that works to near perfection. If I had to rank two films that do a stellar job, they both come from the 70s, in “John Carpenter’s Halloween” and Ridley Scott’s “Alien.”
However, I always give an edge to Scott’s 1979 classic, because the suspense, the tension is so palatable that it delivers every single time you watch “Alien.” Well, the franchise has a new entry, and it totally harkens back to the iconic flick with such nostalgia, dialogue, cinematography and darkness. The opening felt like I was watching the original movie as the ‘Title’ slowly appears on the screen as credits.
Director Fede Alvarez who helmed the 2013 remake of “Evil Dead,” which is fantastic and the incredibly intense 2016 flick “Don’t Breathe” knows how to craft suspense. This doesn’t feel like sci-fi, it feels like horror and sci-fi intertwined in a way that is absolutely sensational. Dread, intensity on edge, that is precisely what I felt watching this movie from start to its slightly shocking ending.
Could I guess the ending to a degree? I didn’t expect the franchise to go there, but it did, but it works, and that is because the characters are well-developed in our protagonists Rain (Cailee Spaney) and Andy (David Jonsson). Spaney is fantastic in the role as a woman hoping to escape a planet where she is virtually a slave. The ‘company’ which is quite familiar to the ‘company’ that has been referenced in previous movies of the “Alien” franchise.
When Rain discovers that the company has extended her contract her frustration erupts and she is invited by her former boyfriend, Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabel Merced) and Tyler’s cousin, Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu). Rain is the heart, but a close second has to be David who portrays Andy, the robot. I almost wish Andy’s true identity was not spoiled to the audience beforehand. That is the thing that makes “Alien” such a classic, you don’t expect that reveal of Ash being a robot and secretly working for the company on a first watch. If you watch things back it becomes obvious based on Ash’s odd quirks.
The movie really builds up the suspense of the creatures, as you don’t get to interact with them until like 40 to 45 minutes into the movie. The characters are developed and we get to see what makes people tick, who we like and who we don’t like and as a result we become invested in these characters; we care about what happens to them. The cinematography is fantastic; it’s a direct result of the darkness of the Romulus spaceship that is frightening. You’re in space and if you’re trapped with something you are not familiar with, how do you navigate around that to ensure NOT only escape, but survival.
The characters are not idiots; they are smart, they just have things working against them that happen to be smarter in our face-huggers and the Xenomorphs. Gotta admit the face-huggers in this flick are aplenty and their modes of attack are intense. Were there a few lines of dialogue that was a direct reference to the classic, where I said: “Aha, that is ‘Alien.” Yes, but it works, I didn’t hate, but the thing about reinventing or reintroducing an old franchise to a new audience and maintaining your core audience is not relying on tropes from the past. The mood and atmosphere is key to what makes “Alien” an iconic classic. You don’t get scenes like Dallas trapped in the tunnel with the alien in cinema anymore.
There are intense scenes in “Alien: Romulus” where you want to scream at the screen and you’re worried about the fate of some characters and that is a testament to solid writing. Could I see another entry into the franchise as a result of this movie’s success? Absolutely, but I don’t know where the movie would go and that is the exciting part.
