Movie Review

Alien: Romulus brings back the true horror of the original film

Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson in Alien: Romulus.

The Alien franchise has turned out to be one of the most durable and malleable ones in movie history, with 2024 marking the 45th anniversary of the original 1979 film. Over the years it has been taken in different directions by a variety of filmmakers, including two ill-fated Alien vs. Predator spinoffs. With the latest film, Alien: Romulus, the series has returned to its true horror roots.

Taking place between the events depicted in Alien and Aliens, it centers on Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), who lives on a remote mining colony in deep space. Desperate to get away from a place where the sun literally doesn’t shine, she takes up an offer from her group of friends – Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Navarro (Aileen Wu) – to go to a decommissioned space station orbiting their planet, where they hope to find cryo chambers that will allow them to travel far away from home.

With the help of Rain’s “brother” – a synthetic being she’s nicknamed Andy (David Jonsson) – the group is able to infiltrate the dual-sided station, but soon discover that certain creatures are also on board. What follows is a dreadful cat-and-mouse game, with the group trying to evade the aliens at all costs, something that proves difficult due to their numbers and ability to quickly evolve.

Directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez, best known for horror films like Evil Dead (2013) and Don’t Breathe, the film is the most effective one in the series, from a pure horror aspect, since Aliens. While all of the non-spinoff films have relied on the terror that the aliens known as Xenomorphs bring, other filmmakers have chosen to either focus on other things or didn’t showcase them effectively.

Not so with Alvarez, who uses the claustrophobic confines of the ship to aid in the classic horror film structure. Having the group consist of 20-somethings gives viewers the familiarity of many earthbound scary films, as does that group featuring different personalities who often make questionable decisions. Additionally, the intensity and scale of the face-huggers and Xenomorphs, not to mention a good amount of gore, ups the fear factor exponentially.

Alvarez uses some clever storytelling devices – a faulty gravity sensor, the corrosiveness of the aliens’ blood – to add in some extra suspense. He also throws in a few references that pay tribute to the original films while still giving Romulus its own flavor, although one decision may prove to be a step too far for longtime fans. With the help of de-aging technology, an original character plays a key part in the film, although there doesn’t seem to be a legitimate reason for shoehorning that person into this particular story.

Spaeny is on a hot streak following her strong performances in Priscilla and Civil War, and she proves once again that her skills are adaptable to multiple genres. Jonsson nearly steals the film despite the fact that Andy speaks in a monotone. He gives the character a ton of nuance, making him into someone who’s alternately pitiable and abhorrent. The rest of the cast is solid, especially Merced, who still looks like Dora but delivers a mature performance.

Alien: Romulus makes the case that the franchise can continue indefinitely as long as it’s paired with filmmakers who know how to bring out the best in their casts and the well-known aliens. The series succeeds the most when horror is the focus, and this film has it in spades.

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Alien: Romulus opens in theaters on August 16.

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Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

For this new store, they chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."