Fede Alvarez has a question for Total Film: "What do you prefer, Alien or Aliens?" But before TF can respond with a well- rehearsed speech ("Objectively? They're both unimpeachable masterworks. Subjectively? Aliens all day, baby!"), Alvarez reveals this is a hypothetical with a point. "I think that's a perverse question," the straight-talking Uruguayan filmmaker says over Zoom in late April.
"You should never be put through that choice." Alien: Romulus is his answer to that 'perverse question' of apples and oranges. Describing the film as "an amalgamation of Alien and Aliens on many levels", everything from the environmental design to the pacing and the way the returning bestiary of Giger-accurate creatures is utilised in Romulus exists on a spectrum from the shadowy, slow-burn chills of Alien to the muscular, adrenalised thrills of Aliens.
"Every day we were like, 'What movie are we making today?'" says star Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War), who has the unenviable task of following Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley as the new face of the series, while the xeno-slayer-in-chief is two decades into a peaceful 57-year hypersleep. "'Are we making Alien or Aliens? What are we going to channel today?' Because they're so different in tone." The idea to smash together two famously divergent classics is inspired to the point that it's surprising no one else had thought to do it in almost 40 years.
The subsequent sequels may have much in them to recommend, but it's hard to argue with.