Alien: Romulus (2024)
Synopsis
Our Alien: Romulus review looks at Fede Álvarez’s return to the series’ claustrophobic survival horror, with practical-feeling creatures and atmospheric nods to the originals.
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William's Alien: Romulus Review
Alien: Romulus is the sort of return to the franchise's roots I had been hoping to see. After several movies devoted to expanding the mythology, this installment remembers how effective the basic setup can be: ordinary people enter a dangerous industrial space and discover that a xenomorph is one of the last things they want to encounter. I liked how the film brings the focus back to survival without ignoring everything the series has developed.
The abandoned station is an excellent setting. Its corridors, machinery and confined rooms create the same sort of anxiety I associate with the Nostromo. I kept watching the background, wondering where the creature might appear and whether there was a safe way out. The production design gives the film a tactile quality that makes the danger feel immediate.
I also liked the central characters. Their reasons for trying to escape their circumstances are understandable, and the story gives them more to care about than simply surviving another monster. The relationship between Rain and Andy adds a human element that helps the frightening sequences land.
The creature work is impressive. There are disturbing body-horror moments, some nasty transformations and enough practical-feeling effects that the xenomorphs seem physically present. I appreciated that the film doesn't rely only on computer-generated spectacle. The familiar life cycle remains one of the most frightening ideas in horror, and Romulus knows how to use it.
The movie also finds room for connections to Prometheus and Covenant without allowing those references to overwhelm the story. I liked that balance. It acknowledges the expanded mythology while keeping its strongest emphasis on the things that originally made Alien frightening.
There are sequences with more action than the first movie, and I think that helps vary the pacing. The film feels like it understands both the claustrophobic dread of Alien and the energy of Aliens.
Romulus is a strong continuation of the series because it doesn't need to reinvent the xenomorph. It simply places the creature into an effective survival story, surrounds it with convincing characters and lets the horror do its work. I came away feeling that the franchise had found its footing again.