'Alien: Romulus' review: A mostly chilling return to form

As a spacecraft hurtles toward its doom in “Alien: Romulus,” a dispassionate female voice begins a familiar refrain: “T minus 40 seconds and counting.” Ah, what a comforting sound! It means that the 45-year-old “Alien” franchise has gone back to sci-fi basics.

Created, shepherded and (mostly) directed by Ridley Scott, the “Alien” films have lately gotten artful and brooding (2012’s “Prometheus” and 2017’s “Alien: Covenant”), with portentous themes and stone-faced performances. It’s easy to forget that Scott pitched his 1979 original as a simple horror flick — “ ‘Jaws’ in space,” to use his words. With a hip young cast and a new director, Fede Alvarez, “Alien: Romulus” jettisons all pretensions and gets down to the business of gory, goopy entertainment, with mostly successful results.

Our heroine is Rain (Cailee Spaeny, of “Priscilla”), an orphan working in the miserable mines of the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Her only family is Andy, a sensitive, almost childlike android, or “synthetic” in the film’s jargon. (He’s played by a compelling David Jonsson.) A group of friends, including Rain’s ex, Tyler (Archie Renaux), has a plan to escape this lousy planet: Fly out to an abandoned spaceship, the Renaissance, and crank her up. All they need is Rain — well, actually, they need Andy, whose Weyland-made fingerprints can unlock the ship’s Weyland-made doors.

Surprise: The ship is full of incubating xenomorphs — those face-hugging, throat-encircling, chest-exploding creatures who have given us so much cinematic pleasure over the years. Their body-invading antics just never get old, and “Alien: Romulus” is happy to repeat them. (Alvarez, who co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, seems much more at home here than on 2013’s iffy remake of “The Evil Dead.”) Among the imperiled astronauts are cocky Bjorn (Spike Fearn), hard-nosed Navarro (Aileen Wu) and pregnant Kay (Isabela Merced).

Spoiler alert: There’s another android on board, Rook, though you’ll recognize him from the original film as Ash, played by the great Ian Holm. The actor died in 2020, yet here he is, credited with “Facial and Vocal Reference.” (Performance credit goes to Daniel Betts.) Whether the studio, 20th Century, used plain old CGI or newfangled AI isn’t clear, but the effect is impressive: Holm’s clipped voice, cool gaze and barely perceptible smile have been perfectly replicated in what feels like a full-fledged supporting role. If you’re a working actor, this will likely be the most horrifying thing in the film.

The finale feels muddled — a whirl of pressurized doors, giant levers and swinging cables that doesn’t add up logistically. Still, “Alien: Romulus” gets high marks for re-exploring the xenomorph’s subtly obscene anatomy (thanks, original designer H.R. Giger) and for bringing a ghastly new twist to the creature (one of the film’s genuine surprises). This is the first “Alien” in years that delivers what the early films did: a pretty good time at the movies.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman