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Look, I won’t go so far as to say that I’m a fan of the last two Alien movies. Who could forgive impossible to avoid space wheel or Michael Fassbender’s “I’ll do the fingers” line, but I’m enough of an apologist to be excited about the next one. All of which is to say, hey, here’s the first trailer for Alien: Romulus, the next one, hitting theaters on August 16.
Considered a standalone entry, Romulus is directed by Fede Alvarez, who previously handled 2013’s so-so Evil Dead reboot, but also made Don’t Breathe, the excellent low-budget home invasion surprise. Little is known about the plot beyond this synopsis: “While delving into the depths of an abandoned space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”
Until now, until Xenomorph, and sure enough, the trailer features younger protagonists than we’re used to. The cast is led by Cailee Spaeny, best known as Priscilla star, supported by David Jonsson (who, based on a second of footage, I’m willing to bet he’s an android…sorry, artificial person), Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, most of whom I promise you would recognize if you Googled them like I did. Ridley Scott is also on board as a producer, although I’m not sure his involvement is the benchmark of quality he once was (*shudders at Napoleon*).
As for the trailer itself, I quite like the atmosphere. It definitely nods to the 1979 trailer for Scott’s original film, which terrified me when I saw it through the railings of my grandparents’ house a few years later. That atonal score construction and sense of rising panic is a particularly unpleasant but cool throwback. Honestly, I’m sure most of us would have been happy if the Alien franchise had ended after those first two masterful entries, but I prefer the idea of this as a clean reboot.
The exception to the rule would be former PC Gamer editor Andy Kelly, who routinely explained why Alien 3 was brilliant, actually. Kelly is a huge fan of the Alien work and, let’s face it, few things are further influential in video games: who has a complete ass book coming out this year about Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly’s 2014 stealth game called Perfect Organism. I like to imagine he’d be a fan of the shot in the Romulus trailer where a bucket full of facehuggers falls into the hallway of a spaceship and then runs toward the camera like truculent corgis at the Westminster dog show. Time to head to the airlock, folks.
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