Much like Fede Alvarez‘s feature debut, 2013’s Evil Dead, Alien: Romulus explores a sibling relationship at the center of the carnage. Of course, it’s also baked into the title, a reference to the myth of twin brothers Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome who were abandoned as babies and fated for fratricidal tragedy. That myth informs the setting and the plot of Romulus, a carefully constructed entry set between Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron‘s Aliens, seamlessly blending the horror and action tones with impressive ease.

Alvarez isn’t content to stop there, though, threading a careful needle through dense franchise lore. It yields an awe-inducing entry when it comes to its impeccable sense of style and form, but one that colors too neatly inside the franchise lines.

Harkening back to the blue collar origins of Alien, Romulus introduces its ill-fated cast on the...