First “Alien: Romulus” Reactions Call it a Genuinely Terrifying Sci-Fi Horror Experience

The first reactions to director Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus are here after 20th Century Studios unleashed the film on audiences at the world premiere in Los Angeles. Romulus is the eighth installment in the iconic sci-fi franchise, which began in Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien and is set between that film and James Cameron’s thrilling 1986 sequel Aliens. 

To ensure he had his mythology right, Alvarez met early on in the writing process with Cameron himself and based his idea on a deleted scene from Aliens where children were running among the workers in the space colony. “I remember thinking about what it would be like for teenagers to grow up in a colony so small and what would happen to them when they reached their early 20s,” Alvarez said in the press notes.

Cailee Spaeny stars as Rain Carradine, a young woman looking to escape her life after her parent’s death on Jackson’s Star, the mining colony where she lives. Rain joins a crew of space colonizers who go to scavenge a decommissioned space station to find the technology they need to leave their doomed planet behind. Unfortunately for Rain and the rest of the crew, the decommissioned space station is not abandoned; there is life aboard, and it is not kind. The horrors to come connect Spaney’s Rain to the original alien slayer, Sigourney Weaver’s iconic Ripley, who first appeared in Ridley Scott’s game-changing 1979 original Alien.

Spaeny is joined by David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, and Spike Fearn.

Let’s take a spin around social media to find out what folks are saying after the premiere. Alien: Romulus hits theaters on August 16:

Featured image: Xenomorph in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

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The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.