Alien: Romulus looks like a terrifying love letter to the first film in the series, released in the delayed 1970s. But this sci-fi horror classic isn’t the only thing Romulus draws on this, so when you watch the film later this week, keep your eyes peeled for emergency calls first seen decades later in Alien: Isolation. And then be prepared to be afraid.
Alien: Romuluswhich hits theaters nationwide this week, draws much of its inspiration from Ridley Scott’s original film. It ignores many a wider universe that was expanded upon in later films and mainly focuses on a compact crew as they battle a deadly, hard-to-kill alien that pursues them. However, as revealed in a fresh interview, the director of the upcoming sci-fi horror also revealed that the fan-favorite video game Alien: Isolationreleased in 2014, also inspired Romuluswhich probably led to its complete creation.
In an interview for Inside Total Film podcast, Romulus Director Fede Alvarez explained that the horror game convinced him that the Xenomorph could be scary again after numerous sequels and guest appearances in other games, films, and comics.
“I played it a few years after its release. Don’t breathe was leaving. Or was I waiting for Don’t breathe to go out and play the game. So that’s when I thought to myself, “Man, if I could do anything, I’d want to do this Stranger and scare the audience again with this creature and the surroundings. I played and realized how scary Stranger it might be if you returned to that tone.”
Save stations from Alien: Isolation appear regularly in Romulus
However, Insulation not only inspired Alvarez to create a new, terrifying Stranger movie. The survival horror game is also directly referenced in the movie in a neat detail involving Insulation Save Stations, which appear as emergency phones scattered throughout the game. Players must stop what they are doing, walk up to one, and activate it to save their game. As such, they are important devices that tend to appear in areas where you can be attacked or killed. And Alvarez did something similar in the movie.
“In the game, every time you knew there was a phone, you were like, ‘Oh man, I’m about to get into some bad scene.’ It’s the same here. You’ll see them strategically placed throughout the movie. When you see a phone, it’s like, ‘Get ready for impact.'”
Alien: Romulus hits theaters August 16. I’ll be watching for emergency calls and getting ready to scream.
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