“Alien: Romulus” reboots “Alien” terror in expected and powerful ways

In its seventh “Alien” iteration, which means it has enjoyed success, “Alien: Romulus” includes all the required, expected fear-inducing shocks and effects. Uruguayan Director Fede Álvarez takes the reins with previous “Alien” director Ridley Scott in a producer chair, ensuring his monster mother and babies create extreme havoc. Chronologically, it occurs roughly twenty years after “Alien,” before “Aliens.”

The story begins with a biting critique of corporate culture. In the Jackson Star Mining Colony, six ethnically diverse men and women head off to a derelict space station after reacting to the Wayland-Yutani Corporation’s unreasonable, extreme increase of quotas, ensuring no one will fulfill their contracts, and free themselves of commercial exploitation. With this catalyst, they escape on a rickety ship to scavenge Romulus, one of two decommissioned modules on the Renaissance station.

Through the film’s title, Álvarez highlights the thematically important Romulus/Remus myth, recalling Romulus murdered Remus. He told “Digital Spy,” ”All the main relationships in the story are sibling relationships.” That applies to human and nonhuman alike, the importance being care for each other, including of the futuristic android Andy. With an imminent collision in thirty-six hours into a destructive asteroid belt, the group scrambles to survive multiple attacks, most notably of the Xenomorph XX121 species. Partially an homage to the 2014 video game, the film is a testament to great editing of effects: scurrying face-huggers, chest bursting creatures, plus young and mature xenomorphs. The most terrifying psychological distress emanates from the monster within the invaded human body, an aspect of all the “Alien” films but with maximum impactful now after the COVID pandemic.  

Galo Alvares’ cinematography highlights the art direction for the mining colony and modules. Though played at ear-piercing levels at my screening, Benjamin Wallfisch’s music and sound design, especially the alternating of silence with sound, intensify every jolt as does the rush of movement versus stillness, zero gravity versus gravity. Cailee Spaeny plays Rain Carradine, the multifaceted central character, a humane young woman who cares about her brother, android Andy. As Andy, David Jonsson projects a complexity greater than that of the humans. An unexpected cameo (no, not revealed here, but I smiled immediately) propels the action with solid support by Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. Best screened in IMAX, “Alien: Romulus” is available now.