Movies
‘Alien: Romulus’ – Fede Alvarez Teases Connections to All Other Films in the Franchise
The teaser trailer for Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus gave no indication about where this particular story takes place in the greater timeline of the franchise, but we do already know that the movie is set sometime between the events of Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens. We know this because Cailee Spaeny revealed that tidbit a few months ago.
But is this a standalone story or can we expect direct connections to the events of those two movies? Alvarez provides some fresh insights in a new chat with IGN this afternoon.
Alvarez explains that while Alien: Romulus will work as a standalone Alien movie for anyone not familiar with the previous films, longtime fans will be getting a richer experience.
And it sounds like he’s not erasing ANY other movies from the continuity.
“The way this movie works is if you haven’t seen any of them, you’ll have a blast,” Alvarez explains to IGN. “But if you have, I’ve been saying you’ll be that person in the theater that won’t shut up, just talking to the person next to you going like, ‘This is from that movie and that’s from this, and [they said] this because of that reason.’”
He adds, “And you’ll pick up on a billion things that connect with the other movies story-wise, technology-wise and character-wise.”
“We went to crazy extents to make sure that things were in canon and we were not contradicting or messing, I would say, any of them,” Alvarez continues. “It’s just something very special when you love certain movies and then a movie comes in and makes nods to them and you feel you’re the only person in the theater who must be getting this reference. That’s what it feels like. It’s really tailor-made for you. That’s my goal for the true fans out there, that they will have the experience they’ve been waiting for.”
Alien: Romulus will be released only in theaters on August 16, 2024.
In the new movie, “While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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