Fede Alvarez is fit to burst. No, the Uruguayan director behind Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe and The Girl in the Spider’s Web hasn’t had a run-in with a facehugger. He’s talking to Teasers shortly after the first trailer for Alien: Romulus unleashed to an egg-static reception, and the typically laid-back filmmaker is thrilled that audiences are chiming with his stripped-back vision for a series that’s found itself a long way from its roots with recent instalments.
‘That’s what I wanted to see as a fan. That was what I was missing, in a way,’ Alvarez says. ‘Alien, above all, is a pure horror movie. It’s as elevated as it can be. But at its core, they’re very simple, straightforward storytelling machines that focus on just punishing the audience with horror over and over. That’s what I wanted to write.’