Alien: Romulus Is Bucking A Horror Movie Trend That’s Waylaid 3 Other Franchises

The news that Alien: Romulus will avoid Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels proves that the franchise’s timeline has as many misses as it does hits. The Alien franchise’s story is uneven at best. While director Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979) is a masterpiece of claustrophobic horror, David Fincher’s Alien 3 (1992) is an atypically weak effort from the talented filmmaker that feels excessively bleak, too thinly plotted, and, crucially, un-scary. Similarly, while James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) is an action-forward sequel that many reviewers found even better than Scott’s original movie, 1997’s Alien: Resurrection was a pointless sequel that failed to get the franchise back on track.