Film Review

Alien: Romulus (2024) — effective build-up to a greatest hits package

While scavenging a derelict space station, a group of young space colonisers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Fede Álvarez remade the “video nasties” classic Evil Dead (2013), but it’s fair to say Sam Raimi’s 1981 original had long shown its age and deserved a modern update. But how do you approach reviving mainstream interest in the Alien franchise, which has two all-time classics in its arsenal that subsequent entries have struggled to live up to? Even Ridley Scott’s return with Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) received mixed reviews, so can the Uruguayan director bring something new to the series?

Don’t Breathe (2016), the horror thriller Álvarez made about three delinquents breaking into a disused house to steal valuables, seems to be the basic template for Alien: Romulus’s similar setup. Taking place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), we follow orphan Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted brother Andy (David Jonsson), a…