Director Fede Alvarez isn’t afraid to divide opinion with Alien: Romulus, he tells us. “Maybe half won’t like it and the other half will love it,” he says.
As we type these words, the initial reactions to Alien: Romulus are beginning to emerge on social media, and it all sounds promising so far. But whatever the critical response to the Alien sidequel is (it’s set between the 1979 film and 1986’s Aliens), Fede Alvarez hasn’t set out to make a universally adored masterpiece.
Speaking to us back in June, Alvarez talked about the reaction to Ridley Scott’s Alien on its release 45 years ago, and pointed out that, while it’s widely hailed as a classic today, it was regarded as shallow and generally unpleasant in 1979.
“Quite a lot of my research in the beginning is trying to understand what those movies really meant when they came out, not what they are now,” Alvarez told us. “Now they’re bigger than life and all the critics will agree it’s a masterpiece. But at the time, Ridley says that half of the critics destroyed the movie. They thought it was complete shit – rubbish. It was just too violent and gratuitous.”
Alvarez then explained that he wants to garner a similar reaction with Alien: Romulus – make a space horror that delights some and repulses others.
“If you’re aiming for the critically acclaimed masterpiece, then you’re doing it wrong,” Alvarez said. “You’re not understanding that those things were not [acclaimed] at the time. It’s the same thing [with Alien: Romulus]; I tried to do it in a way where I think maybe half won’t like it and the other half will love it. I always prefer it when it’s that way. Rather than one hundred percent saying, ‘Eh, it’s okay.’ [Laughs] I think that’s the worst. If there’s friction, you try a bit more.”
With a compact cast including Cailee Spaeny, Isabella Merced and David Jonsson, Romulus returns to the confined ‘haunted house in space’ horror of the original film, with its younger actors intended to create a different tone from the earlier Alien movies. As Alvarez said, “It’s the big issue with Alien 3: it’s a lot of very mature men running around getting scared. And you’re like, ‘Come on. Face this thing.’ It’s easier to judge them than a young person who’s terrified and doesn’t want to die.”
Alien Romulus emerges in UK cinemas on the 16th August, so we’re only days away from finding out what fans and critics make of it. On the strength of the reactions on social media so far, however, things are looking cautiously positive.
You can read more about filmmaker Fede Alvarez’s path to Alien: Romulus, the chaotic making of Alien 3, and lots more besides in the brand new issue of Film Stories magazine, available to purchase online now.
