Alien: Romulus

A group of young people scavenging a decommissioned space station to escape their mining colony wake something the company left behind.

Alvarez, who made the Evil Dead remake and Don't Breathe, deliberately positions it between the first two films in tone and timeline, and it is the most confident the series has been in decades: practical facehuggers, animatronic xenomorphs, and a genuine understanding that the horror is corporate as much as biological.

The zero-gravity acid sequence is the standout new idea.

There is a digital resurrection of a legacy character that divided people sharply and is the film's one real misjudgement.

Cailee Spaeny anchors it, and the film is at its best when it trusts the original recipe rather than referencing it.