‘Alien: Romulus’ is a terrifying time at the cinemas

Alien: Romulus marks the first time I’ve actually been terrified during a movie in this franchise. To be fair, I knew a lot of the beats of Alien (1979) when I first saw it, so the frightening moments weren’t that scary to me. But Romulus is disgusting in the most delicious way and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is a young girl living in a mining colony and has finally gotten the opportunity to travel. She and her brother, Andy (David Jonsson), are trying to escape to a new planet together. Andy is an android whose prime directive is to do what is best for Rain and if that means getting her off this planet, he will do it.

The two join up with Kay (Isabela Merced), her brother Tyler (Archie Renaux), and their team as they try to find cyro chambers to get them off world. And in true Alien fashion, that doesn’t go as any of them expect. The Fede Álvarez take on this franchise is so gory that, at times, I was left squirming in my seat. Yes, the original film has an alien busting out of the chest of John Hurt, but that is almost child’s play compared to what Álvarez does here.

Maybe it’s just me, but there is very sexually explicit imagery in the franchise (thanks Ridley Scott), and Romulus continues that but almost takes it a step further. Let’s just say that I, a woman, finally understand the cringing men do when they see someone get hit in the groin. A moment in this movie had me reacting similarly, just in the reverse.

But that is what makes Romulus feel so very Alien to me. It fits with Scott’s world perfectly.

A perfect Ripley replacement

Rain didn’t have to be anything other than Ripley 2.0 to make me care. However, Spaeny plays her as a girl who just wants to find her own life. When we meet her, she’s working to try to escape and they just keep putting more on her shoulders. Then she has to deal with Andy and whatever lingering feelings she seemingly has for Tyler. So, to see her come into her own as someone who just wants to fight to survive throughout Romulus makes her more than just the final girl archetype that Ripley fell into.

She has to learn how to do things. She’s smart and cunning and does know tech, but she’s not part of the team like Ripley was. Ellen Ripley can do a lot of the same things that Rain can, but the key difference is that Rain is decidedly alone most of the time.

Rain needs time to learn to trust, to help, and to make decisions for herself, so when she finally does, you’re rooting for her to succeed. I think it was a smart change to the strong female energy that Ripley put out in the Alien franchise. For all of Ripley’s bravado, Rain is forced into this situation and her survival instincts are what makes her relatable.

Downright terrifying

Call it franchise fatigue or whatever you want, but after a while, I stopped finding xenomorphs frightening. They’ve got a big head and skinny arms. But Álvarez makes them so terrifying that I felt a shiver down my spine every time one was lurking in the shadows. The face huggers are not something I ever want to encounter in my real life, and just so much of this movie makes you fear the darkness.

Maybe that’s what the franchise needed, a horror director taking on Alien. But there is just something about Romulus that I really dig. The last act has truly some of the most off the rails choices in the franchise, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw the movie, but I do think that it won’t be for everyone. I love this franchise a lot and think this is a stellar addition to it.