Alien Romulus has finally arrived in theaters, continuing this summer’s tradition of A-plus horror films.

Fede Alvarez takes the director’s chair for this one with Ridley Scott merely acting as a producer. It’s for the best as Alien Romulus lays aside many of the heady god-killing themes of Prometheus and tells a grounded story set between the first two films in the beloved franchise.

Alien Romulus starts where few alien films actually begin. On a planet. Our leads are a young orphaned girl named Rain and her surrogate brother Andy the android. Andy is an older model and struggles to function at times, but was programmed by Rain’s father with one prime directive. Do whatever is best for Rain. Rain is stuck working on a sunless planet and forced to pay an ever-increasing quota of hours to the evil Weyland corporation. Her friends decide on a plan to heist a ship and make their way to a distant planet, one with a sun, where they can live out from under the thumb of the sinister mega-corporation. For plot reasons, they have to enter an abandoned space station to receive more sleep fuel or something. That space station is separated into two sections, Romulus and Remus, and is also crawling with face huggers and xenomorphs.

Andy’s primary directive, to do whatever is best for Rain, is the film’s primary theme. Andy goes through a mid-film update that changes this directive and we get to see actor David Jonsson doing an incredible job playing both of the characters. His turn heel is marvelous and greatly raises the stakes and our affection for the character. The film does an excellent job of making us both feel compassion and fear for the androids in this world. A task other films have tried and failed.

The name alien has always felt like a double entendre in the first film. Alien refers to both the literal extra-terrestrial crawling through ventilation shafts and the android on board that is alien to the crew. The secret threat that no one knows about, who wields more power and is pulling more strings than anyone is aware of. The second film introduces a second android, one that is more sympathetic, but Aliens is never able to make us fully care for that character. Possibly because the main crux of that film is saving Newt, the young parentless child who has been surviving alone on an alien-infested planet. The relationship between Newt and Ripley is much more realized and resonates so strongly with viewers that any care we were supposed to have for the android is never realized. Here though we genuinely feel for Andy. He is a part of the crew and the term alien comes full circle in 2024. Andy is treated as an outsider, an inferior being, until his turn when we as an audience are reminded he is not the inferior being in this universe.

This plot line provides great subtext throughout the film and Alien Romulus also touches on some of the larger ideas and thematic elements we got in the two prequel films. What Romulus does well though is leaving these themes beneath the surface, not throwing them in the audience’s face. There is clearly a reference to Romulus and Remus, the two brothers in ancient Roman mythology who helped create Rome before Romulus killed his brother Remus. The image of Romulus and Remus receiving milk from a giant wolf is an instantly recognizable image in Roman mythology and that theme is born out here. Two human or human adjacent beings receiving life-giving milk from a monster. Later plot lines expand on this and the film culminates in a truly bizarre fashion with an exceptional piece of body of horror.

Fede Alvarez does a fantastic job with this film and the Alien franchise as a whole. Alien began with this small contained story of space truckers in over their head with a giant monster but quickly grew into this centuries-spanning saga that was just as much about horror as it was about killing gods and ancient mythology. Alien Romulus brings the series back to its roots, making a contained story surrounding a group of survivors but it does so with care and impeccable technical acumen.

Galo Olivares is the cinematographer for this film and his work here is impeccable. The set designs are beautiful and the way he captures everything on screen is truly remarkable. I mean just look at how he captures this shot, using shadows to create a nod to the iconic facehuggers.

Benjamin Wallfisch provided the music, another standout for the film. Wallfisch takes elements from the original Alien franchise and some inspiration from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scores to deliver something truly unique. He also maintains restraint and utilizes silence to an incredible degree. For a series set in space, it is shocking no one has utilized silence to create fear or tension but the filmmakers do so here and it makes for a truly tense experience.

The film is also gracious with the audience’s time. The beginning of the film is quick, taking less than 15 minutes to introduce the entire cast and get them into space. I would have loved to spend more time on this derelict sunless mining planet but the movie has a bigger story to tell and it doesn’t waste time getting there. The film clocks in right at two hours which is the perfect length we need to tell this type of story.

Alien Romulus isn’t perfect and some story beats don’t land. CGI is minimal in this film but when it’s there you notice it, specifically in the revival of an iconic character. It’s not enough to take you out of the film but it is slightly off-putting. There are also logic cues the film introduces that haven’t been used in the rest of the series and again they aren’t terrible but it is the thing that makes you think “Wait, why wasn’t this ever mentioned before in one of the six previous films?” These are mainly just nitpicks though as the film delivers exactly what it needs to. Alien Romulus is a fun and scary entry to a 45-year-old franchise and the best in the series since its two iconic openings. Alien Romulus is an 8 and I hope Fede Alvarez gets to do more work on this franchise.