Horror movies follow the same trends as every other genre. While independent and lesser-known filmmakers produce original ideas, the studios stick to a handful of profitable IPs.Alien: Romuluswill reinvent the 45-year-oldAlienfranchise by eschewing the widely despised details fromPrometheus. Director Fede Álvarez sees an opportunity between the original film and its action-packed sequel. He worked similar magic in his 2013 take onEvil Dead, which earned mixed reviews for its approach.
Fede Álvarez has enjoyed a strange career with several sharp turns. He exploded onto the scene in 2013 with hisEvil Deadremake, but he’s better known for his follow-up,Don’t Breathe. That grim thriller depicted three young thieves breaking into a blind man’s house, only to discover dark secrets under his seemingly normal life. His next three films, includingthe ill-fated sequelhe only wrote and produced, failed to live up to his first original project.Alien: Romuluscould be the next frontier in his complex career.
Release Date
July 03, 2025
The teaser forAlien: Romulusfeels like a high-budget fan film. Its sound evokes a particular nostalgia. It’s the franchise’s answer toDavid Gordon Green’s 2018Halloweenreboot. The film will take place between Ridley Scott’s 1979Alienand James Cameron’s 1986Aliens.Alienremains one of the most influential horror films ever made. Its knockoffs still earn theatrical runs today, with films likeLife, Underwater, andBreachborrowing half their tricks from the 70s classic. Fans cried out for anAlienfilm that captured the tense gothic horror of the original. Unfortunately, almost every sequel ignored that request.
TheAlienfranchise consistently addeddetail to a film that excelled at maintaining mystery. The shocking twist in the originalAlienhas nothing to do with the origin of the then-unnamed Xenomorph or Space Jockey. It kept its events claustrophobic, contained, and deeply personal.Prometheusupended the franchise with a mountain of inconsistent and uninteresting lore no one asked for. Troublingly, the modern prequels divide their time between sub-par remakes of the first film and dull lore dumps.PrometheusandAlien: Covenantfeatured spaceship crews struggling to evade acid-blooded aliens, but they cut their shoddy reboot with their worthless explanations.Romuluscould dispense with the chaffto make room for more wheat. Unfortunately, that strategy comes with new risks, some of which rear their ugly heads in Fede Álvarez’s earlier work.
Rotten Tomatoes Score
63% from 205 critics
Alien: RomulusandEvil Dead(2013)share a ton of DNA. Fede Álvarez directs both while co-writing both scripts with Rodo Sayagues. Both are attempts to reignite a dormant franchise with modern filmmaking techniques. Both have the original filmmakers attached as producers. WhileEvil Deadwas a remake of Raimi’s 1981 original,Alien: Romulusserves a similar role without undoing the narrative of the first outing. Álvarez’sEvil Deadis a gripping horror movie that captures the nightmarish circumstances of its source material. It spends roughly 20 minutes setting the stage before kicking into a non-stop thrill ride withabsurdly excessive blood and gore. While it delivers in some ways, critics pushed against its lack of innovation.Alien: Romuluscould risk a similar fate.
Evil Deadis what it says on the tin. Its no-frills approach eschewed anything as advanced as character development or deeper dives into the franchise’s lore. Some critiqued the lack of humor, arguing the borderline slapstick approach to violence seen in Sam Raimi’s classic was integral to its success.Evil Dead(2013) lacked gags.Aliendoesn’t have that problem, but it does hide multitudes of thematic depth that could go ignored by a cursory glance. If Álvarez’sAliensequel seeks only to capture the horror of the acid-blooded killing machine, it risks delivering little more than temporary shock value. Fans have alreadyseen a Xenomorphturn hundreds into stains on spaceship walls. As fun as another rush of atmospheric violence could be,Aliendeserves better than repetitive, mindless bloodshed.
Álvarez’sEvil Deadis worth watching, but it’s hard to remember beyond its kills.Alien: Romuluscouldinnovate on the franchise’sunique attributes and deliver the best version of its narrative in decades. It’s unlikely, but Álvarez knows what he’s doing. The director must deliver a grounded narrative with memorable characters to capture anything beyond visceral popcorn entertainment.Alien: Romuluswill hit theaters this August. Fans will have to wait and see whether Fede Álvarez can deliver the nightmare they’ve been waiting for.
