If you like sci-fi horror, you shouldn’t miss “Alien: Romulus” – and you should enjoy the film in the cinema, because the film really looks stunning. You can even overlook two failed CGI shots.
I love sci-fi horror – nowhere can my penchant for occult horror films be visually woven in as well as in the eternal expanses of space. Because while terrestrial horror trips with cryptic symbolism often feel compelled to add a mostly moderately satisfactory explanation, nowhere can enigmatic symbols and ominous designs stand for themselves in their meaning as much as in this very subgenre.
This is more about the visual sensation of the strange – the fear of confronting the remains of an unknown civilization that will remain forever misunderstood. The grandmaster of this disastrous understanding of design was Hans Rudolf Giger, better known as HR Gigerwho as a set and costume designer was primarily responsible for the look of the Xenomorphs and alien architecture in Ridley Scott’s “AlienWith his mixture of fetish design and human-machine fusion, the artist created a real feeling of strangeness and unease through the look of the creatures and their living environment, which has lost none of its fascination to this day.
At the same time, however, the creation of Michael Seymour, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian and Ian Whittaker should not be overlooked, who were even nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Production Design for their work on “Alien” in 1980. This special combination of futuristic, sterile design elements paired with the occult festival horror of HR Giger created an extraordinary look that still feels fresh and special more than 40 years after the release of “Alien” – and that none of the subsequent films could really copy. But in “Alien: Romulus” you get that feeling again that crawled through your bones back then.
“Alien: Romulus” breathes the spirit of the original
“Alien: Romulus” seems like a stylistic return to the very design decisions that made the original so unique – and expands on that look in a coherent way. Here, water drips and drips from the walls as the indefinable alien mass slowly overgrows the interior of the beautifully designed retro-futuristic spaceships.
While other films like “Prometheus“ have been looking for ways and means to modernize the “Alien” world in terms of design, “Romulus” consistently continues the design decisions of its predecessors – and this does not only apply to the appearance of the face-huggers, which have been given a little extra retro charm by the use of stop-motion technology, and aliens, but also to the entire narrative world. What director Fede Alvarez and his production design team have put together here breathes the spirit of the original – and as a viewer, it is almost as if you are finally coming home.
Even two CGI uglinesses are bearable
Attention – spoilers follow from now on: Even the less successful CGI revival of Ian Holmwho played the antagonist Ash in “Alien”, is not particularly important – even if his strangely animated face unfortunately brings with it a strong uncanny valley effect. An avoidable decision, because the choice to reactivate the first villain of the “Alien” franchise is merely a gimmick, a treat for hardcore Alien fans – in terms of content, this role could have been filled just as well by any other android.
More annoying is the mutated CGI ugliness, the human-alien hybrid, against which Rain (Cailee Spaeny) in a final confrontation – because that really falls outside the design framework. Too much of a closeness to the designers from “Prometheus” was sought here in order to create another cross-reference, while the HR Giger design approach was completely thrown overboard. And the poorly executed CGI effects are what finish off this grotesque spawn of the “Alien” universe.
And yet – if you’re in the mood for some cool set design and atmospheric sci-fi horror, you won’t find anything that looks as scary and beautiful as the world of “Alien: Romulus.” Currently, you can and should still enjoy the film in the cinema. The extraterrestrial shocker will be released in German cinemas on August 15, 2024 and will probably be running there for a few more weeks.
By the way, there are already ideas for a possible continuation. You can find out more about this in this article:
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