Hash Import 2026 05 18 12 34

Alien: Romulus (2024)

★★★ — Alien: Romulus (2024)

Fede Álvarez came to this with solid horror credentials, having made his name with the Evil Dead remake in 2013 and the tightly constructed Don't Breathe in 2016, which made him a credible choice to revive a franchise that had been struggling since its mid-2000s peak. Alien: Romulus is positioned as a standalone entry in the long-running series begun by Ridley Scott in 1979, sitting somewhere between that original and James Cameron's 1986 sequel in terms of setting and tone, and produced with Scott's own company, Scott Free, involved. Shot largely on practical sets in Budapest, the $80 million production was a modest bet by modern blockbuster standards, and its box office return of over $350 million made it one of the more commercially successful entries in the franchise's history, arriving at a moment when studios were increasingly revisiting legacy properties with younger casts.

Ruined by the ending While Alien: Romulus attempts to breathe new life into the franchise, it leans too heavily on familiar territory, echoing Aliens in both structure and tone. The film's atmosphere and tension are commendable, capturing the claustrophobic dread that fans appreciate. However, the narrative feels overly derivative, lacking the innovation needed to set it apart. The introduction of the xenomorph-human hybrid in the final act is particularly contentious. This plot development seems unnecessary and detracts from the established lore. While the film delivers on visual and suspenseful fronts, it struggles with originality and character depth. In summary, Alien: Romulus offers moments of genuine suspense and visual appeal but ultimately falls short due to its reliance on past formulas and questionable narrative choices.

Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2024 | Watched: 2025-04-10

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch (UK)

Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) arrived at a strange crossroads in American cinema: too modest to be a prestige picture, too unsettling to be a forgettable B-movie. Adapted from Jack Finney’s serialised novel The Body Snatchers and shot at Allied Artists on a budget barely

Fantastic Planet (1973)

René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973) is one of those films that doesn’t really fit anywhere: too cerebral for kids, too odd for animation festivals, too steeped in European political theory for the Saturday-morning slot, and too visually fearless to ignore. A 72-minute French–Czech co-production designed by the

Viy (1967)

Viy (1967) is a strange and almost solitary object in Soviet cinema: a horror film, an actual horror film with monsters and demons and supernatural set-pieces, in a national cinema that mostly didn’t make horror at all. Officially endorsed by Mosfilm and based on a Nikolai Gogol folktale, it

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) is the studio’s middle-period work par excellence: technically polished, commercially tested, narratively cautious, and just slightly off. Made between two of Disney’s commercial successes (Cinderella in 1950, which had rescued the studio from one of its periodic financial near-misses, and Peter Pan

Read more

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Fantastic Planet (1973)

Viy (1967)

Alice in Wonderland (1951)