John’s Horror Corner: Tarot (2024), a high-quality PG-13 horror about astrology and ghosts of vengeance.
MY CALL: A cool theme, great character writing, and crisp filmmaking across the board make this a more memorable and entertaining contribution to sub-R horror. MORE MOVIES LIKE Tarot: Maybe Thirteen Ghosts (2001) and the Final Destination franchise (2011).
Celebrating a birthday, a group of affluent college students rent a mansion. After running out of beer, they search the palatial home in search of a liquor cabinet only to find a very creepy cellar festooned with what appear to be possibly cursed curios a la The Cabin in the Woods (2012). Among the antiquities are astrological themes, divinations, and an ancient set of Tarot cards which, of course, they’re going to use despite the knowledge that one shouldn’t use someone else’s Tarot deck. User beware…
Our protagonists—Haley (Harriet Slater; Pennyworth), Grant (Adain Bradley; Wrong Turn), Paxton (Jacob Batalon; Spider-Man Home Trilogy), Paige (Avantika; Mean Girls), Madeline (Humberly González; Nobody, Orphan Black, In the Dark), Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz; Assassination Nation), and Elise (Larsen Thompson; Bloodline).
Being the most astrologically knowledgeable of the group, Haley handles the readings and explains to her friends and the audience how Tarot readings are conducted. The writing is top notch; and so are her readings. And as the viewers may have guessed, the card themes of each reading are forecasting the ghoulish fates that will befall those learning their fortunes once they return to campus after the weekend.
The monstrous imagery and behavior of our malevolent Tarot spirits is a satisfying admixture of Thirteen Ghosts (2001) and Insidious (2010), while some of the scare tactics are more in the style of Lights Out (2016). Most importantly, at least some of these ghosts look great. Still, there’s some of the typical blurry shaky glimpses and lame CGI ghouls to be found as well. The first death was conceptually quite mean, with subsequent death scenes being more derivative, even if decently executed, with the gruesome stuff left more implied and off-screen.
After the first two deaths, our protagonists fear a pattern tracing back to their Tarot readings. They seek the help of an expert astrologist and investigator of such Final Destination-like post-Tarot death phenomena. Alma (Olwen Fouéré; Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Mandy, Sea Fever) advises them of what is happening and how to survive. The rest is in their own hands.
Jacob Batalon is an endearing delight, in part from his personable acting style, and in equal part due to the pleasantly surprisingly writing, which actually makes these characters interesting and entertaining to watch even when not being hunted by murderous apparitions. The camera work and editing were also above my expectations, and complemented the introductory dialogue.
Sub R-rated horror often falls prey to toothless terrors, less inspired writers fettered by rating boards and producers, and reduced intensity from directors. Yet I find Tarot’s cultivation of dread very effective, particularly in the early horror scenes. Was this intense? Outside of a few scenes (especially the first death scene), not terribly. But it made valiant efforts.
Truly, this is pretty solid for PG-13 horror. This film is generally well-made in all dimensions down to the set design and the individual Tarot card designs. Our rather green writer-director team of Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg have done splendidly! I certainly look forward to whatever they do next.
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Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – The Kitchen Fight Michelin Star Guide – Sudden Death (1995)
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Nick discuss whether or not the kitchen fight from Sudden Death is Michelin Star worthy. This is the second episode of a fun new series that will include the kitchen fights from Gremlins, Deep Blue Sea, Monkey Man, Under Siege and many more! Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Species (1995), a SETI-gone-wrong, Sci-Fi thriller that holds up shockingly well!
MY CALL: High-budget Sci-Horror done right! Alien monsters, gross gore, tentacles, pulsating cocoons and xenomorphic transformations bring visually titillating popcorn fun. MORE MOVIES LIKE Species: Other than the first sequel Species II (1998), I might consider Decoys (2004) a good double feature. Splice (2009) also follows a similar vein.
The 90s enjoyed a wave of movies (e.g., Arrival, Sphere, Contact) producing some ideas of what would happen if aliens were to respond to our messages sent out into deep space from the project SETI: Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. As one might imagine, most of these movies didn’t focus very much on themes of sex. And then there was Species. But make no mistake, director Roger Donaldson (Cocktail, Dante’s Peak) prioritized the thrills, effects and suspense over the raunchy frills for this 90s R-rated summer blockbuster. Truly, I forgot how awesome this movie was!
Living her life in a bubble under 24/7 observation by a team of scientists, a genetically engineered half-alien girl (Michelle Williams; Halloween H20) in a government research facility has been scheduled for destruction. The girl escapes, rousing a military manhunt and a top-secret operation to capture her. Her instincts drive her to feed in preparation for a metamorphosis wherein her skin pulsates and ruptures as 90s CGI tentacles burst from her body and cocoon her into a gorgeously gross mass reminiscent of Aliens (1986) and Gremlins (1984). From this mass emerges the now grown adult Sil (Natasha Henstridge; Species II-III, Maximum Risk, Ghosts of Mars).
Sil’s primary researcher Xavier (Ben Kingsley; Self/Less, Bloodrayne) assembles a team to track her down to prevent her from accomplishing her goal of… well… mating with an Earth man and producing offspring. This team includes hitman Preston (Michael Madsen; House), Dr. Arden (Alfred Molina; Hideaway), Dr. Baker (Marg Helgenberger; After Midnight, Species II) and psychic Dan (Forest Whitaker; Bloodsport).
Having stowed away and cocooned into adulthood on a passenger train to Los Angeles, the now fully developed and beautiful Sil wanders the streets and learns about the world. But what particularly fascinates Sil is not lacy dresses nor TV shows. What catches her eye are pregnant bellies and small children as her evolutionary drive takes over.
Sil’s behavior is right out of a nature show. She kills when she feels threatened (that poor train employee), she violently dispatches anyone that presents as mate competition (that floozy at the club), and she desperately seeks to reproduce. In many ways, this plays out like an intelligent crime thriller movie hunting down a spy. Sil quickly learns she is being followed and by whom, and begins to predict, outsmart, and ultimately go on the offensive against them. Then the movie shifts from a manhunt crime thriller in style, to a monster hunt.
The mostly practical special effects in this movie hold up really well even today! In an exciting laboratory scene, the alien’s DNA produces a squiggly writhing mass of tentacles and puffy jellyfish-like morphology as it rapidly expands on-screen and skitters its way towards nervous prey. Then at an LA night club Sil yanks out a woman’s spine for hitting on the same man; she kills a pushy man by blasting her tongue out the back of his head; and she eventually mates and births a monster.
Sil’s transformation to her alien form is also quite a sight—and designed by H. R. Giger, so expect some comparisons to an Alien (1979) xenomorph. Outside of some CGI tentacles, severed finger regeneration and finale wall-crawling monster moments, everything practical is visually outstanding. This movie’s effects are graphic, gory, and they spared no expense!
I loved this movie as a teenager (for obvious and shameful reasons). But I still love it today (for very different reasons). Truly, I think this movie remains awesome and worth your time.
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Out Come the Wolves (2024) – Review
Directed by Adam MacDonald (watch Backcountry ASAP) and starring Missy Peregrym (who starred in Backcountry), Out Comes the Wolves focuses on an all-around terrible weekend for three people. Sophie (Missy Peregrym) has brought her fiance Nolan (Damon Runyan) to experience what it’s like to hunt and kill an animal. Nolan is the editor-and-chief at a magazine and figures that if he’s going to eat animals, he might as well kill one – and get a story out of it. This involves hunting with Sophie’s longtime best-friend and former hunting buddy Kyle (Joris Jansky – who has a co-writing credit), who is traveling to the cabin with his girlfriend Leah. Kyle is needed because Sophie swore off hunting and embraced veganism after years of killing animals started to weigh on her conscience (her father and grandfather were hunters – it’s in the family). It’s a solid idea to build off of, and it gets more interesting when Kyle claims that his girlfriend Leah couldn’t come to the cabin because she got called to work at the last minute.
After some dicey bow and arrow training, and arguments about working while on vacation (Nolan is writing his piece during the trip), Nolan and Kyle settle in for a night of drinking that will ensure the survival of anything they shoot at the following day. It’s during this time that Kyle questions Sophie’s engagement and reminds Sophie about the time when they promised to get married if they were both single at age 40. Kyleso admits that he and Sophie broke up and apologizes for lying about her having to work. It makes Kyle’s solo arrival become much more dubious and his interactions with Nolan aren’t helped by the fact that he’s obviously in love with Sophie. It also doesn’t help that Kyle is the type of guy who says things like “I know you better than you know yourself” to Sophie – which is never a good thing. This all leads to Nolan having a drunken chat with Kyle in which he tries to act tough but comes across as a drunken cityboy who has consumed too much expensive cognac. Ordinarily, insulting the man who is taking you out hunting in a few hours isn’t a great idea, but the movie needs some character drama to carry the first 30 minutes of the film.
Since the movie’s title is about wolves coming out of the woods, Nolan and Kyle’s hunt goes sideways when a group of wolves attack. It’s a brutal first encounter made worse when the opportunist Kyle leaves Nolan behind to die (the trailers give this away so I don’t mind spoiling it). This forces Sophie to come out of hunting retirement to battle the predators and deal with the shifty Kyle who saw his opportunity to get with Sophie and took it (like a true predator). What makes Out Comes the Wolves enjoyable are the sudden and violent wolf attacks that feature ripped flesh, wild scrambles and primal violence. The wolves aren’t messing around, and they pose a legitimate threat with their sharp teeth and hunting skills. Basically, when the movie transitions to Sophie’s battle with the predators – it gets more interesting.
The opening drama makes sense when looking at the limited budget. Out Come the Wolves doesn’t have the budget of The Grey or The Edge, so the 87-minute film couldn’t solely focus on hunters battling wolves in the Canadian wilderness. When shooting on location there’s inclement weather, a limited amount of light, and long treks with heavy gear that slow down the shoot. Toss in animal wrangling and special makeup effects, and a movie budget can blow up quickly.The problem is that the character drama isn’t inspired, there’s nothing to hold on to while the two male lead characters are fighting wolves. I understand what MacDonald and co-writer Enuka Okuma are getting at with the title (Sophie has to battle wolves AND terrible dudes – which is a great idea), but it doesn’t really work because the two distinct parts of the film never gel into something cohesive.
When it comes to survival thrillers it helps when you are emotionally invested in the people trying to survive – this doesn’t happen here. In fact, by spending so much time with Kyle and Nolan, it takes away from Sophie becoming more of a character. She’s the one who saves the day, so it would’ve been nice to spend more time with her, and less time with two drunk guys who enjoy pushing each other’s buttons.
Ultimately it’s a movie with two very distinct parts, and they never combine to create a fully realized film.
Grade: C
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 579: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, V’Ger, and William Shatner
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Niall kick off their Star Trek series by talking about the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Directed by Robert Wise, and starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and the infamous V’Ger, the movie focuses on what happens when the Enterprise crew has to deal with a gigantic ship that is headed towards earth. In this episode, they also talk about montages, rushed productions, and the popularity of the Star Trek franchise. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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The Great Movie Boss Debate: Part 1
The Great Movie Boss Debate: Part 1
By Erik Hofmeyer
So you want to be a better boss?
Maybe you’re reading the latest Dr. Brene Brown book or perusing YouTube for Simon Sinek Ted Talks. Or maybe you’re registering for your company’s in-house professional development courses if they don’t skimp out and just offer web-based content. Or you could be scrolling your LinkedIn feed littered with “thought leaders” sharing dramatically overly summarized blurbs about great people, or great deeds, to try and make themselves look insightful.
But have you tried looking to film?
There are some great bosses in movies. Obviously, we know the silver screen is a fantasy land and these lessons in leadership are a bit of stretch, but nonetheless, it’s fun to analyze some characters who we’d love to work for.
We’re casting a wide net here with both leaders and managers (yes, leadership and management are different things) because there’s a vast array of styles out there. Take Star Trek for example. There is the brash and clever Captain Kirk, and there’s the more cerebral Captain Picard who was collaborative and diplomatic, and everything else in-between.
Let us know what you think of our list! And maybe we’ll cover this topic on the podcast.
1. Sam Rockwell as Owen from The Way, Way Back
Do you remember your first boss? Was the boss good, bad or just plain unremarkable? In The Way, Way Back, Duncan (Liam James) is an awkward teen vacationing at a beach house with his mother (Toni Collette), and her boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell) who’s a fire hydrant of condescension. Fortunately, Duncan makes a friend named Owen (Sam Rockwell) who saves his summer by offering him his first-ever job at a water park so he has some space to breathe.
Sam Rockwell’s character as the owner of a waterpark is so perfect. Bosses who manage teenagers or college-aged employees have more responsibility than they often realize. Generally speaking, teenagers entering the workforce have vague baseline expectations for good or bad workplace leadership and/or behavior. Also, teenagers enter the workforce accompanied by a wide variety of backgrounds in their “home life.” So, being a boss is a real opportunity to be a force for good.
Getting a job at the waterpark injected a massive confidence boost and instant network of new friends. To us, the lesson here is that mentors can fill in gaps in lives that parents are unable to fill.
Favorite Quote: “No pattern on my quarter. Cut your own path.”
2. Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Okay, we get it, the people aren’t the main attraction to a movie about a giant titan royal rumble. But Rebecca Hall showed us some excellent boss energy as Dr. Ilene Andrews who oozed confidence as a boss at the top of her game in her high-up role in Monarch monitoring Kong’s life in the Hollow Earth. The team respected her distinguished doctoral education, track record of achievement, the ability to make tough decisions and lead from the front, and all while looking after a teenage child. A couple neat leadership highlights jumped out at me.
First, she knew when to look at problems differently from an “outside” perspective by bringing in podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), who also starred in the previous Godzilla vs. Kong movie. The humility and self-awareness of knowing/admitting that a team needs help is a key leadership trait.
Second, her team members felt empowered to run with innovative ideas and take calculated risks. For example, Trapper, Kong’s personal veterinarian, played by the hilarious Dan Stevens, had a wild (and successful) idea to take off to lead a flock of electrically charged flying beasts, in mating season, toward the advancing giant apes to slow them down until Kong arrives from the surface. Yes, we know how silly this sounds, but the point is that team members taking ownership and bringing ideas to the table is a sign of a healthy work culture.
Favorite Quote: “After Mechagodzilla, we realized that there were some threats that even Kong couldn’t face. So, we started working on some minor augmentations.”
3. Anthony LaPaglia as Joe Reaves Empire Records
He’s the kind of boss that every high school or college student would love – authentic, somewhat jaded, doesn’t get bent at small stuff, but at the same time he was someone who really cared for team members.
Empire Records featured a tight-knit group of music-savvy youths who, as the brilliant Roger Ebert explained, is “one of those films where in a single day, in a single music store, every conceivable thing happens to every conceivable character, and at the end of the day, they are all a lot wiser, as the endless list of music credits scrolls up the screen.”
Empire Records was more than work – it was a refuge where characters could be themselves by vetoing music selections, dancing with customers, going all out for Rex Manning Day (mark your calendar for April 8), and more. Building this kind of work environment is infectious for business and the envy of managers everywhere. Also, an engaged workforce is less likely to pilfer, “call in sick,” and more likely to turn the store into a community fixture.
It’s the type of store that only exists in movies, but boy, the team loved him so much that one of the employees rode his motorcycle to Atlantic City to try and win enough money to save the store from being bought out by Music Town. And then, the staff threw a massive block party and concert to raise funds for Joe. Obviously, employees need to learn the rules, processes, and basic customer service etiquette. But outside of that, letting employees enjoy work and bring their authentic selves is a solid business strategy.
Favorite Quote: “You’re doing a great job, Deb.” When he saw a team member struggling with mental health issues. He had the emotional intelligence to reach her from a different angle and ensure she knew that she was appreciated and belonged there.
4. Regina Hall as Lisa in Support the Girls
For Joe at Empire Records, giving employees space was the right tact for the situation. But other times, managers need to be really hands-on for their team. Support the Girls was a perfect example of that style.
Regina Hall crushed her role as Lisa, the general manager of Double Whammies, a sports bar that features skimpily dressed waitresses. The restaurant is an aptly named double entendre because she gets hit with a barrage of whammies but keeps on going. Lisa is nurturing and protective of her staff who toil away to get by, and the story follows her as she faces an extremely trying, microcosm of a day that tests her optimism at every turn. She has plenty to contend with a botched break in, her servers facing a myriad of personal issues, a ridiculous restaurant owner, and more.
She began the day by crying in her car, however, she found the strength to grind on because of compassion for her team. Great bosses like Lisa are energized by their teams who look to them for leadership. And they’re energized by the victories they generate for people. One example was bending rules with a car wash to raise funds for one of the servers. Or entertaining a kid at the restaurant because his mom couldn’t find childcare for the day. It reminded me a lot of the military style of “servant leadership” where leaders and supervisors focus on the wellbeing of teams and often try to “shield” troops from outside pressures so they can do their job.
I also loved the empathy she showed for team members even when she had to terminate employment. For example, she had to let one server go due to a regrettable choice in a tattoo, but there was kindness and a pledge to support her. Another employee committed a fireable offense, but she decided to forego law enforcement involvement and let him walk away to avoid inflicting additional turmoil.
Favorite Quote: “I can take f**king up all day, but I can’t take not trying.”
5. Tom Hanks as CAPT Ernest Krause in Greyhound
Greyhound, along with Support the Girls, is one of the most criminally underrated movies in recent history, mostly likely because it came out amidst the chaos in 2020 and right before Apple TV’s popularity boost post-Ted Lasso.
It’s a tight, intense WWII thriller about an international convoy of 37 ships on a treacherous mission across the Atlantic Ocean to England to deliver Soldiers and supplies to Allied forces. It’s a deadly cat and mouse game with German U-boats heading that features strong leadership and team heroism. The “Battle of the Atlantic” is one of the largest naval battles in history and one of the few movies to ever feature the supply chain that makes operations possible.
The Captain isn’t an all-knowing superhero. He’s someone who dedicated his life to his craft, and who sometimes doubts himself, gets fatigued, and feels the immense pressure of the mission just like everyone else. One area that leaped out at me was communication. For example, the crisp radio transmissions; the way he speaks to everyone on the ship in the same respectful tone; the way he listened to his team. One particular scene was how the Captain corrected a critical mistake. During a stressful maneuver, a Sailor panicked and shouted out in fright. In war, seconds could mean the difference between life and death. He immediately cut off the panicked Sailor with a normal tone of voice, made an on-the-spot correction, and then everyone moved forward together. Effective coaching is essential because, if not, people either repeat the same mistakes and professional growth is stalled.
Favorite Quote: “I will tolerate no more fisticuffs on my ship, so restore the relationships you have damaged and fill me with peace.”
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 578: Remember the Titans, Denzel Washington and Football Movies
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and Norbert discuss the 2000 football drama Remember the Titans. Directed by Boaz Yakin, and starring Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, and Hayden Panettiere, the blockbuster football film kicked off a wave of biographical sports films that made Disney a lot of money. In this episode, they also talk about high school football, Ryan Gosling, and Disney sports movies. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Arcade (1993), an embarrassingly bad, early techno-horror about a virtual reality videogame.
MY CALL: This movie opens and closes with gore, CGI effects and horror, and middles in the realm of crime thriller with a lot of illegal legal advice from a videogame demon. Yeah, I’d watch that movie! But I might just regret it. MORE MOVIES LIKE Arcade: So other early techno-horror include Demon Seed (1977), 976-Evil (1988), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Brainscan (1994), Virtuostiy (1995), Strangeland (1998), White Noise (2005) and Pulse (2001, 2006).
High schooler Alex (Megan Ward; Crash and Burn, Trancers 2-3, Amityville 1992) joins her friends to Dante’s Inferno arcade for the release of an all-new game with next level virtual reality. After her boyfriend Greg (Bryan Dattilo) plays and loses the game, he disappears. When Alex plays the at-home promotional version of the game, the game knows her name and taunts her that it has Greg inside.
Alex insists that the game is somehow “alive.” Not surprisingly, Nick (Peter Billingsley) and Stilts (Seth Green; Ticks, Idle Hands, It) are skeptical until they find their friend Laurie (A. J. Langer; The People Under the Stairs) clearly driven mad by the game. Meanwhile, the game directly challenges and threatens Alex to play by its rules, or it would come for her in her world.
The writing and acting are bottom shelf. And whereas the videogame effects may have been acceptable in the early 90s, they verge on insufferably bad now—and not bad in a way I could enjoy. The dialogue has the feel of a young adult novel, giving the teenagers unrealistic confidence and agency in the world to investigate this game and the disappearance of their friends… but it never feels earned as it did in Invaders from Mars (1986) or The Stuff (1985). When I was 12 (in 1993) this may have been great for me. But now (at 43 years old) I fail even to find a nostalgic pleasure from it… and for me, that’s unusual! The problem isn’t the YA tone, but the lousy writing behind it. It’s insufferable. And the game’s dialogue is equally awful.
When inside the game, Alex and Nick explore what looks like Pitfall and Doom meets Tron. And guess what? If you are hurt in the game, what you suffer is real. I know, right? Barf. Oh, and be sure to watch out for the computer game demon. Double barf! Well, at least all the effects suck and the finale sucks, too. They also totally rip off the riddle of lies from Labyrinth (1986). It hurt listening to that scene play out.
Director Albert Pyun (Cyborg, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Kickboxer 2, Dollman, Nemesis 1-4) tried… but not very hard. This movie is terrible. Really terrible. I kind of hate this movie. But I also kind of enjoyed hating it. So, I guess there’s that.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 577: Love and Monsters, Creature Features and Grenades
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and David Cross discuss the 2020 creature feature Love and Monsters. Directed by Michael Matthews and starring Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, and a large crab monster, the movie focuses on what happens when a naive guy makes an 80-mile trek across a landscape loaded with hungry monsters. In this episode, they also talk about movie grenades, post-apocalyptic travel movies, and beach fights. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Alien: Romulus (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B – With a back to basics approach and an appreciation of the entire Alien franchise, director Fede Álvarez has created a fun Alien film that fits nicely in the franchise.
Set 20 years after the events of Alien (somewhere around 2142), director Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) was driven by the idea of “ would it be like for teenagers to grow up in a colony and what would happen to them when they reached their early 20s.” This idea grew into the plot for Alien: Romulus, and the end product is a film that delivers plenty of fan service but also branches out and isn’t afraid to build to a gnarly ending that I’m certain will be divisive (which is cool with me. Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Covenant weren’t afraid to be divisive either). Also, it’s worth noting that the reason Álvarez chose younger characters to be the focal point of the film is because “As a rule of thumb, in horror, the younger the people the tougher it is to watch them die.”
The film opens up with a twentysomething named Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) learning that the amount of work days needed to leave the soul-draining Weyland-Yutani mining planet she lives on have doubled, which means she’ll have to put in at least six more years of work before she can head to a less terrible world. It’s a death sentence for her and her android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), as mining accidents, poison air and zero hours of sunlight have created an atmosphere of desperation and hopelessness. It’s a strong opening and it makes her decision to travel with her friends to a derelict ship seem like a good idea as there is no hope to be found for them on their death planet.
Rain and Andy team up with fellow twentysomethings Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu), who have devised a plan that involves stealing the sleep pods from the derelict Weyland-Yutani ship named Corbelan IV that is orbiting their planet, and using the pods to keep them alive during a nine-year journey to a hospitable colony. It’s a plausible plan to get off of a terrible planet.
Since it’s an Alien film directed by Fede Álvarez, who delights in putting his characters (and actors) through worlds of pain, the movie quickly becomes a horror film as Tyler and Bjorn unwittingly unleash some facehuggers that cause chaos and death. From there, it becomes a survival horror experience as Rain, Tyler, Andy, and Kay have to make it to the other side of the gigantic ship to survive. Along the way, they battle xenomorphs, uncover mysteries and have pissed off chestbursters explode from their chests.
The best part of Alien: Romulus is the relationship between Rain and Andy. Andy is an old school android that predates Ash from Alien and isn’t nearly as evolved as David from Prometheus. He’s a loyal companion who’s directive is to look after Rain and do what’s best for her. While on the ship, Andy’s programming is updated and he becomes more analytical and clinical. The update switches his directive as the new Weyland-Yutani code forces him to save a mysterious item that is located on the complete opposite side of the massive Corbelan IV. I won’t say anything else, just know that Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson have wonderful chemistry.
I do wish that Ridley Scott would’ve been able to finish what he started with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. However, knowing that he likes Alien: Romulus gives me some peace. There’s a lot to like about Romulus, and I think it’s a welcome entry to a franchise that has been consistently entertaining since 1979.
Movies, Films & Flix 