When Ridley Scott’s Alien released in 1979, theater-goers vomited and fainted at the pure horror projected in front of them. In the 45 years since, not a single film in the long-running franchise has matched the shock of the original, but Alien: Romulus is finally delivering the terror fans have been missing.
Set in the 57-year interval between Alien and Aliens, Romulus focuses on a young cast colonists exploring an abandoned space station, not unlike Alien Isolation.
As expected with any film in the franchise, the cosmic horror of the Xenomorph is released and lives are lost in particularly gruesome ways.
First Romulus Trailer Gives Hope to Original Alien Fans
Alien: Romulus’ first full trailer shows off exactly what the franchise has been missing for almost half a century: pure, unbridled horror.
While 1986’s Aliens is one of the best sci-fi films ever made, it never manages to capture the dread of the Xenomorph’s debut attack on the crew of the Nostromo.
Directed by Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe’s Fede Alvarez, Romulus clearly makes clever use of the filmmaker’s brutal and visceral style. If you’ve ever seen the crunchy violence of Alvarez’ Evil Dead remake, you can see a decade of evolution here.
The sound design is imposing – the crunch of chestburster against ribs is a rotten metronome for this trailer’s rhythm – and the extreme close-ups bring you even closer to the terror than ever before,
After decades of disappointments, starting with Alien 3 and culminating with the rancidly cliched Alien: Covenant, Romulus is a back-to-basics affair that still holds some extraordinarily clever advancements of the series’ building blocks.
The facehuggers are more agile and violent, the chestbursters seem more brutal, and the iconic Xenomorph is deadlier than ever before.
Alien: Romulus is the most exciting addition to the franchise since the release of Aliens. While we’ve had some truly fantastic comics, books and video games like Aliens: Dark Descent and the aforementioned Alien Isolation, this is a series that has been as lethargic as a Ripley in cryosleep.
While some fans may be upset that we won’t see the return of Sigourney Weaver in Neil Blomkamp’s scrapped Alien 5, Romulus is exactly what the franchise needs.
No, we don’t need a legacy sequel in the vein of Halloween 2018 or Blade Runner 2049, as good as those examples are, we need something fresh and exciting. Alien: Romulus is exactly that.
It’s true that in space, no one can hear you scream, but when Alien: Romulus releases in theaters on August 16, 2024, I will be screaming at a pitch only dogs can hear.
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