Editorials
[Reaction] Initial Thoughts On ‘Prometheus’, Expectations And The Baggage You Might Bring Into It
As much as I feel people are too sensitive with their definition of the word “spoiler”, I haven’t included any below so feel free to read safely. No plot details or descriptions of any kind are included. This is also not my official review – that’s coming later.
If anyone has a right to attempt a prequel (or any kind of related film) to Alien, it’s Ridley Scott. And make no mistake, Prometheus is very much in that universe and shares more than “strands of DNA” with that film. However, it’s also very much its own movie and the ideas it’s concerned with aren’t very similar to the ideas explored within Alien. If that statement doesn’t make much sense now, I’m betting that it will after you’ve seen the movie.
I’ll get into all of this in more detail when my review hits in a few days, but I want to talk a bit about expectations first. I’ve seen Prometheus once (I’m seeing it again in a few hours so I can clarify my thoughts) and it’s a film that I like quite a bit. I’d go so far as to say that it’s “really good”. Like most films (and it’s better than most films), it’s not perfect. Normally I wouldn’t even bring this sort of thing up ahead of my review, but I feel that for the past six months many of you have been expecting a perfect film – something that equals Alien. It’s not your fault, the film is asking to be viewed through this lens.
But I’d encourage you not to. I’d encourage you to treat it as a new film and not bring a massive amount of baggage into the theater with you. Not everything in the movie works, but it’s gorgeous, intense and has some genuinely shocking and great moments. It can also claim great performances from Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace. I’ve heard some people complain that these characters are thinly drawn, but I certainly felt I knew enough about them to get what makes them tick.
Prometheus also has a lot of ideas and raises a lot of questions, questions that (by design) it doesn’t always answer. In that sense, it truly is its own cool sci-fi film and not an Alien film. It helps to be open to Scott’s desire to explore new territory within this framework. What doesn’t help is to expect an out-of the-box masterpiece, because many of you won’t find it to be that. But if you can get excited about Prometheus as an intense and interesting new movie – you’re in luck. I’m not asking you to turn off your brain or to disengage from critical thinking, I just think it might work better for you on an even playing field.
Prometheus opens on June 8th. We have a lot of interviews in the pipeline for you – starting with Michael Fassbender today at 3PM PST.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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