By Ayan Chowdhury.

In 1979, ‘Alien,’ directed by Ridley Scott, released in cinemas and revolutionized the sci-fi horror genre in film forever. Described as a “slasher in space”, it is quiet, tense atmosphere and shocking, gory imagery enthralled audiences into something unlike anything they’d seen before. The film was praised by audiences and critics alike, landing itself an Oscar and three Saturn awards. Naturally, it made sense for the studio (20th Century Fox) to want to make a sequel to their smash hit. Unfortunately, it seemed Scott was uninterested, so the studio instead turned to ‘Terminator 2’ director, James Cameron. Cameron took the series in a much more action-heavy direction, almost completely changing Scott’s vision for the original movie. Since then, a multitude of sequels to Alien have been released, all to mixed reviews (the latest one being ‘Alien: Covenant’ in 2017). None of them seemed to really understand what a sequel/prequel to ‘Alien’ should look like, and hence, audiences never seemed to fully resonate with them. It appeared as if the ‘Alien’ franchise had died, as no director truly knew where to take it.

5 years after ‘Alien: Covenant”, it was announced that a new installment in the Alien franchise would be released in 2024, titled ‘Alien: Romulus’. On the crew for ‘Romulus’ was esteemed horror director Fedé Alvarez, and Ridley Scott in the producing role. ‘Romulus’ promised to bring the series back to form, introducing audiences to a brand-new cast of characters, who would presumably follow a similar storyline to the original film. In August 2024, ‘Alien: Romulus’ was released in cinemas to mixed reviews and controversial headlines. While there was no doubt that ‘Alien’ had returned to its roots in sci-fi horror and the feedback was positive from many (with a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 80%), there were many accusations that ‘Romulus’ was nothing more than a watered-down copy of the original ‘Alien’. After hearing this I had two main questions:

1. Is that a fair statement to make?
2. If so, is it possible to make a true sequel to ‘Alien’ without it feeling like a knock-off?

To begin with, I’d like to acknowledge what I liked about ‘Alien: Romulus.’ To me, the film functions perfectly as a slasher movie set in space. It follows the standard story beats one would expect from a film of the ‘slasher’ genre: a group of unsuspecting and young people enter a mysterious place and discover that a violent killer is there with them. The killer attacks the crew, and the crew tries to survive and escape before dying. In ‘Romulus’, the place is an abandoned spacecraft, and the killer is obviously the alien(s). Alvarez takes the audience through this story using some very impressive visuals (perhaps the only thing all audiences agree on) as well as some decent performances and a soundtrack that not only matches but elevates the tension in each scene. Overall, I was quite satisfied with the movie, it gave me exactly what I personally was looking for: A slasher movie in space. I felt it stayed true to the concepts of the original film, without feeling too derivative or like a copy. However, there was clearly a large number of people who disagreed and were not satisfied. Many claimed the opposite of what I had thought: that it was in fact a cheap copy of ‘Alien’, without any of its substance.

To figure out why someone would say this, we must look at what made the original ‘Alien’ film work so well. At the time, the studio advertised it in the same way I described ‘Romulus’: A ‘slasher’ in space. It did follow the typical storyline of a ‘slasher’ that I listed previously, audiences agreed with this description and loved the movie. If this is true, why don’t they love ‘Romulus’? It shares its intricate cinematography and tense atmosphere, its stacked cast, its gory kills. So, what’s the issue? Where did it go wrong?

I had to re-watch the original ‘Alien’ film to figure out what separates the two, but I think I’ve figured it out. ‘Alien’ isn’t a slasher movie, it’s not even a sci-fi horror. Well, it is, but that’s not what makes it so good. What makes it so good is the mystery, the mystery of the aliens. The suspense isn’t derived from not knowing if the characters will get killed, it’s from not knowing what will kill them. Throughout the first film, the mystery is uncovered, and you learn how the aliens work, how they reproduce, what they feed on. That’s what makes ‘Alien’ work, and that’s what makes ‘Romulus’ fail. That’s also what made (almost) every previous sequel to ‘Alien’ fail. Alvarez knows that audiences know everything about the aliens, including all the things I mentioned above. Due to this, the substance of the film (the mystery) is completely lacking, audiences are instead given a cliché, by-the-book ‘slasher’. Alvarez tries his best to make the most out of the plot, but there’s only so much he can do when this problem is so prevalent.

What fans of ‘Alien’ really want isn’t the same movie with a fresh coat of paint, they want another mystery to uncover. I believe the closest any director got to that was James Cameron with ‘Aliens’; By expanding the lore of the aliens he created new intrigue and suspense. ‘Romulus’ attempts this, but it’s so caught up in trying to recreate what its predecessors did that it leaves no room for actual development in that sector.

In conclusion, ‘Alien: Romulus’ (in my opinion) succeeds as a sci-fi horror / slasher movie. However, it fails as an adequate sequel to the original film. If what you’re looking for is the former, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this film, and I’d highly recommend it. However, if you’re a fan of the franchise and are looking for the latter, I have doubts you’ll find that here. Perhaps the upcoming show ‘Alien: Earth’ will fix the issue many have with the franchise, but I don’t have high expectations.