The verdict on Alien: Romulus? It’s fast-paced, dramatic ... and gruesome
Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez has no interest in protecting lead characters in this film, the seventh instament in the Alien franchise. Contrary to the famous tagline, in space their screams are heard.
Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez made his name in Hollywood with horror movies such as the 2013 reboot of Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe in 2016. He brings that strength to Alien Romulus, the seventh instalment in the Alien franchise first brought to screen by Ridley Scott in 1979.
The result is a two-hour horror show set in space. It’s fast-paced, dramatic, tense and gruesome. The director has no interest in protecting lead characters. Contrary to the famous tagline, in space their screams are heard.
Fede pays due respect to Scott, who is an executive producer, and to James Cameron, director of the 1986 sequel Aliens, but he has made a film that is distinctly his own. He co-wrote it with his compatriot and regular writing partner Rodo Sayagues.
The final scene, for example, takes the human-alien relationship to a jaw-dropping new place. It is visually spectacular and what happens is quite believable given how much we mess with the non-human world, which I think is the overall theme of this movie.
Scott’s Alien and Cameron’s Aliens each star Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley. She is not in this film but Ripley’s survival skills are mentioned. The setting is the time between the two films.
Here’s the set-up: a group of young space colonists flees a planet that is more or less a slave labour mining operation. They plan to move to another planet, one where the sun still shines.
However, to make that nine-year voyage, they need cryogenic sleep chambers. As it happens there are some on an abandoned space station called Romulus, so they head to it, dock, and go on board.
They are led by Tyler (Archie Renaux), who is cool-minded, and Bjorn (Spike Fearn), who is hot-headed. Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is accompanied by her artificial person, Andy (David Jonsson, who is impressive in a difficult role). Also on the mission are Navarro (Aileen Wu) and Kay (Isabela Merced).
They encounter two problems, one immediately and one soon afterwards. First, Romulus is drifting into an asteroid belt that will obliterate it and all within. There is 36 hours on the clock. “We’ll be in and out within 30 minutes,’’ Tyler assures the others.
Maybe they would be except for the second problem: the derelict space station is full of parasitic aliens that like to attach themselves to humans and impregnate them. If you hope to see an alien burst from a human’s body cavity, as the first one did from John Hurt’s in 1979, you will not be disappointed.
As if those two complications are not enough, a third arises, and it is the most captivating theme of the movie, again because it’s so close to reality. Andy, who starts out programmed to help Rain, is reprogrammed – for life-and-death reasons – but as a result his new overriding command is to prioritise the needs of the mining company that owns the space station.
“I am afraid this is not in the best interests of the company,” he says in another life-or-death situation and it is chilling.
There is another synthetic human – or half of him as his legs are missing – already on board and he knows why the aliens are there too.
“It’s a long overdue upgrade for humanity,” he says with a smile. “We simply cannot wait for evolution any more.”
This non-human human is part of Fede’s homage to the original, as his digitally added face is that of Ian Holm, the actor who played the android Ash in Alien and who died in 2020.
He advises Andy that the humans will let emotions interfere with their thinking and this must be avoided at all costs.
“Have mercy and end her life now,” he says when one of the humans is splashed with the acidic alien blood.
This is the message of the film. We interfere in the non-human world, plundering natural resources and manufacturing hybrid beings. We create non-human worlds such as artificial intelligence. The question is if and when this will turn on us and, like a Romulus Xenomorph, suck the life from us.
It’s not a new message – Stanley Kubrick’s HAL goes rogue in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – but it is powerfully delivered in this compelling addition to the Alien series.
Alien: Romulus (MA15+)
119 minutes
In cinemas
Tropical island of the dread
“Do you think the human sacrifice is before or after dinner?” So Jess (Alia Shawkat) asks her friend Frida (Naomi Ackie) as they feel the vibe in the drama Blink Twice, the directorial debut of American actor Zoe Kravitz.
She’s joking, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong. In this slow-burn thriller nothing is what it seems to be.
Frida and Jess find themselves on a tropical island estate owned by handsome tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). There’s a suggestion that he has a black mark on his name. His “sorry” speech is a highlight.
It’s all champagne, cocktails, fine food, drugs, swimming pools and sun decks. Frida and Jess first meet Slater while working as waiters at one of his corporate events. He invites them to the private island. Or so it seems.
Other guests include Vic (Christian Slater), who is Slater’s right-hand man, and Sarah (Adria Arjona), who is famous for being on a Survivor-like television series. Geena Davis is Slater’s highly strung personal assistant and a well-cast Kyle MacLachlan is his therapist.
It’s the therapist who uses the title phrase. “Blink twice if I’m in danger,” he says on meeting Frida and Jess. Again, he may or may not be joking. As an aside, the director – daughter of rock star Lenny Kravitz and actor Lisa Bonet – wanted to call the movie Pussy Island, but was persuaded otherwise.
Despite the glamorous location and all the free food, drink and drugs, there are hints something is not quite right. There are literal snakes in the grass and the household servants behave oddly, as they do in the film this one reminds me of: Jordan Peele’s 2017 debut Get Out.
Jess wonders how it is that her wardrobe, and Frida’s, is full of clothes that fit. When Frida stains her white top, she awakes the next morning in the same top, stain-free. “Forgetting is a gift,” Slater tells them.
Ackie, who is so good in the 2022 Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, is impressive in the lead role, and Arjona grows into the role of a woman who realises Survivor is just a TV show.
As in Get Out, we do find out what is going on and it’s a scarily possible alternative reality. I think Kravitz mixes up her intended message towards the end, but overall this is a solid directorial debut.
Blink Twice (MA15+)
102 minutes
In cinemas
★★★
Pair face the chilling reality of isolation
“It’s the end of the world. There’s nothing after this,” Ben (Gilles Lellouche) tells his partner Laura (Melanie Thierry) when they land on a deserted island off the Antarctic coast.
She agrees it’s a beautiful location, but they soon realise it’s a brutal beauty.
“We’re in deep shit,’’ she tells him the next morning. “No-one knows we’re here, we have no food and it’s freezing.”
The rapid change of heart comes after a storm forces them to take shelter on the island, which was an old whaling station. When dawn breaks, they look out to the ocean and Laura sums up their problem: “The boat’s gone”.
She’s right. There is no sign of their yacht. All they have is the rubber dingy used to reach the shore, a cigarette lighter and the clothes on their backs. There are sheds on the island, but winter is coming.
This film is directed by Thomas Bidegain, who is best known as a screenwriter. He wrote the moving 2012 French drama Rust and Bone and co-wrote the 2021 Matt Damon-led American crime thriller Stillwater.
The source material is the 2015 novel Soudain, Seuls (Suddenly, Alone) by French sailor and writer Isabelle Autissier. The screen adaptation has an interesting backstory.
In 2019, Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby were cast in the lead roles, with Bidegain hired to direct an American film. However, a falling-out between the director and Gyllenhaal led to the project being abandoned.
Bidegain pushed on and made this French language film instead. It is a survival thriller and a psychological drama. In one of the best scenes, Ben and Laura argue about their relationship, touching on their different personalities, their wants and needs, and their love life.
She tells him about her future plans, which are news to him. She also tells him why she agreed to join him on the voyage in the first place. “I’ll be fine without you,’’ he responds. “Just fine.”
This goes to the title of the novel, Suddenly, Alone, and it’s a fear that only intensifies as the couple realise they are in The Lord of the Flies with snow. “If I croak first,’’ Laura asks her lover, “Will you eat me?”
Will he? Will she if he dies first? When it comes to survival, will they separate or stick together? Will love save them or tear them apart? These are the questions they face as the struggle to survive becomes harder and harsher in this absorbing drama.
Suddenly (M)
French language with English subtitles
113 minutes
In cinemas from August 22