Alien: Romulus
Fifth time or something watching this masterpiece. Alien: Romulus was my most anticipated movie of 2024, and it exceeded every expectation I had (literally saw it twice in one week in theaters, which I never do. Retwatching stuff is rare but never in my life have I watched the same movie twice in theaters, before I watched this movie, and then it being in the same week is crazy)
The VFX are fucking insane. Most of it was practical, but even the digital stuff looked so good you genuinely can’t tell the difference. That moment when Tyler gets chills? I got chills. Alien has always been the superior franchise to Star Wars in my eyes. The sets actually look real and high quality instead of like plastic. The production design is out of this world yet realistic. The practical effects are fucking impressive, and unless you know what to look for, you can’t tell what’s practical and what’s digital. They put so much care into making everything feel real.
The cinematography is also just fucking amazing. Every frame is just super fucking atmospheric and intentional. The lighting, the shadows, the way they frame the xenomorphs and all the aliens to maximize dread… it’s fucking gorgeous yet disgustingly terrifying at the same time. The visual language of this movie is just on another level.
And I might be biased since I’m a huge Isabela Merced fan, but every scene she’s in is the best scene. Like there is just something about her presence that just elevates everyone around her. For example that door scene with her, David, Cailee, and Archie was absolutely chilling. And holy shit, her scream during the chestburster scene? One of the biggest, most fucking incredible screams in horror history. She’s a fucking scream queen, who ever disagrees with that is wrong…The pure horror and pain in that scream was so visceral and haunting. This was also the first watch where I really noticed how good Archie was as Tyler… and cailee is so fucking talented and has such a huge range that she is unrecognizable in every role she plays. The entire cast stood out. And the casting is so phenomenal that to bring alive one of the aliens they got a 7’5” Romanian basketball player who’d never acted before to wear the costume, and he made it soo fucking menacing, scary and realistic. He deserves so much credit for making that alien genuinely terrifying, because there was a lot of eye acting that he slayed.
The sound design is also just out of this fucking world. The xenomorphs and facehuggers sounded so poundingly scary and deeply intrusive. Those screeches just goes right through the ears and into the brain. Like every sound truly feels like it’s crawling under your skin. The silence before the chaos, the sudden jolts of noise, o the exact opposite a lot of noise and then… nothing yet that nothing feels more pounding than anything else because you just get to hear your own heartbeating… it’s all perfectly crafted and The fact this didn’t get more recognition for sound is absolutely insane because it really deserved it (I k ow it got nominated for an Oscar for sound but it should have won)
Benjamin Wallfisch’s score deserves its own section because the amount of fucking detail that went into it is amazing. The xenomorph’s motif is literally the opposite of Rain’s motif, and Andy’s motif is Rain’s with an extra note. All of that to subconsciously communicate that Rain and Andy are the opposite of the xenomorph, and that Rain and Andy are so connected yet still their own people. The level of thought and care in the musical storytelling is incredible. Wallfisch is so fucking talented.
And that last act gets absolutely brutal. I’m talking disgustingly gory in a way that genuinely unsettled me. I usually find gore in movies funny and end up laughing when things get really bloody, but not with this. This made me physically recoil and pull into myself. It’s so slimy, so visceral, so shocking. The body horror is next level. Everything about it feels wrong in the best way possible for a horror movie. It commits fully to being grotesque.
My one gripe with the movie is that they kill off a character towards the end that felt unnecessary. We don’t even see the actual death, just the aftermath, which makes it feel arbitrary. What really frustrates me is that this character’s survival would have opened up so many possibilities for sequels and different directions the franchise could go. Instead, it feels like they closed themselves off to a single path forward, one that probably won’t even include any of these actors. That choice genuinely pissed me off because I loved that character and they kept giving me hope they’d make it through. But that might also just be my bias talking.
But honestly? This might be the best Alien movie. I know that’s a bold claim, but it’s legitimately neck and neck with the first two for me, and I think it might actually take the top spot. Looking back at 2024, which was such a solid year for movies that really connected with me, this still stands out as my favorite. It’s a tough fucking call because the year was stacked, but yeah… Alien: Romulus is my favorite movie of 2024.