Alien Romulus: An Infectious Return to Sci-Fi Horror

Alien: Romulus is a refreshing return the the franchise’s suspenseful sci-fi horror roots. And that’s a great thing: because I’ve forgotten how many Alien films there are. This…”series?” has lost its way to say the least. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant…no, wait… googling Alien: Covenant and Prometheus had a great concept and bad execution. And I think we’ve all decided to pretend like those Alien vs Predator films ever existed. So this series was due for a breath of fresh air. Alien: Romulus is that oxygen.

Alien: Romulus follows an entirely different cast of extraterrestrial cannon fodder, that the first 30–45min of this movie does a fairly good job of making you care about. The protagonist of this Alien installment has an abnormal attachment to an android, programmed by her late father. This android is Weyland tech which is important to the plot. And the humanoids in this film end up stealing the show. The other scavengers also have intriguing motives for needing these parts and are equally desperate to gather any valubales they can from this seemingly abandoned ship. Unfortunately, its not as abandoned as they think.

What stands out from start to finish in this film is the suspense. The claustrophobic, dark, doomed ship is the perfect backdrop for this reboot. All of the things that made the first Alien film special help this film stand out from the series. There are jump scares, chases, blood, guts, and…acid all over the place. The original elevator pitch for the first Alien film was “Its like Jaws, in space,” and this film takes that formula and runs with it. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; it adds painted rims to it that match the car’s colorway.

The only thing I didn’t like about this film was the ending. Not to give anything away, but there’s way too many attempted twists and turns in the final 20 min. Like, if they just chose either of the SEVERAL “gotcha!” moments they included, it would’ve been a much more satisfying entry, but at the end it left me a little disappointed. And that’s too bad, because I personally was on the edge of my seat thru the whole ordeal. I had to fight my inner stereotypes not to yell out in the theater “BTCH DON’T GO IN THERE! WTF ARE YOU DOING??? OH YOU DUMB MOTHERFCKERS!!!” You know, like any Black person in a good horror movie.

THE VERDICT: 87% Chronic on the Bammer Scale. This film is the reboot that the franchise so desperately needed. It gets back to its sci-fi horror roots in style. It’s an indica-dominant hybrid that leaves you couch-locked and on the edge of your seat only to have the cops shine flashlights in your eyes, blowing your buzz. But one helluva high.