Director Fede Alvarez brings his macabre Midas touch to the Alien franchise with Alien: Romulus, a highly entertaining sci-fi horror that successfully conjures the spirit of the early Alien films.

Set between Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking sci-fi horror Alien and the beloved James Cameron directed sequel Aliens, this ninth entry in the Alien franchise is a high-achieving affair that successfully plays its safe and scary…that is until director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe) takes an odd turn with a third act that is meme-worthy at best and distasteful at worst. Despite this misstep, Alien: Romulus successfully achieves its brief to make space scary again.

Taking place on the mining colony of Jackson’s Star in which generations of humans toil under the watchful eye of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, Alien: Romulus follows orphan Rain (Cailee Spaeny) who along with her dysfunctional android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) join a rag-tag group on a heist to board the derelict space-station Renaissance and steal several cryo-sleep chambers. True to form, the Renaissance is infested with predatory alien species the xenomorph that don’t take kindly to their guests.

Alvarez’s solution on how to make Alien: Romulus a consistently scary film after nine Alien releases is a sound one: keep it simple and take it back to basics.

Production designer Naaman Marshall (Mortal Kombat) delivers suitably 80s gritty sci-fi environs in a glorious display of future-vintage done right. The choice of workaday grunts as the protagonists/victims in Alien: Romulus is also strong, even though most of the supporting characters are not very memorable, save for the various grizzly ways in which they are dispatched by the (still) terrifying xenomorph alien monsters.

The best performance in Alien: Romulus belongs to David Jonsson who delivers an equally sympathetic and chilling portrayal of a sentient being stuck in a nightmare scenario made worse by the illogical emotional choices of his human comrades; a new twist on the Dr. Jekyll /Mr. Hyde dynamic that can only be pulled off by an actor of impressive skill.

Alvarez – who made a name for himself with his grizzly remake of The Evil Dead – has a clear affection for the earlier Alien movies, with Alien: Romulus both a strong addition and tribute to a sci-fi horror franchise that has as many downs as there are ups.