Movie The beauty of the “Alien” franchise is that it has always allowed room for distinctive filmmakers to play with their own aesthetics and themes. Ridley Scott’s taut, philosophical space-thriller “Alien” gave way to the sweaty, militarized machismo of James Cameron’s “Aliens.” David Fincher brought industrial Soviet aesthetics and psychosexual tension from his Madonna music videos to the stylish “Alien 3” (though he disavowed his directorial debut); even the darkly whimsical French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet put his quirky stamp on “Alien Resurrection,” before Scott returned for the bloody, brooding prequels “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.
” With “Don’t Breathe” and “Evil Dead” (2013) director Fede Álvarez at the helm of “Alien: Romulus,” it’s then no surprise that his version is a contained slasher flick drenched in goopy viscera, in which a group of scrappy youths are hunted down by an unknowable monster. Written by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues, the screenplay for “Alien: Romulus” is ruthlessly efficient while touching down on recognizable themes from the series: pregnancy, feminine strength, and the clash between human and artificial intelligence. One could argue that “Alien” movies are like pizza — they’re good even when they’re not so great, and aside from a few head-scratching choices that will no doubt inspire reams of think pieces, “Alien: Romulus,” with its thrilling tactility and appealingly plu.