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Glass Shard.

April was such a blast on HQ: Trace and I tackled David Nutter’s Disturbing Behavior (listen), John Carpenter’s Christine (listen), as well as Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 1997 film Alien Resurrection (listen).

To wrap up the month, we celebrated a belated Earth Day with a revisit of queer director Lee Haven Jones‘ The Feast (Trace reviewed it for Bloody; Joe wrote about it for his site).

In the film, Cadi (Annes Elwy) is a mostly silent young woman who serves privileged guests at a dinner party in a remote house in rural Wales. This includes MP Gwyn (Julian Lewis Jones), his entitled wife Glenda (Nia Roberts), their hyper-sexual son Gweirydd (Sion Alun Davies) and drug addict Guto (Stefan Cennydd).

As the evening progresses, however, strange incidents begin to occur that affects each of the family members differently. Who – or what – is Cadi and why is she doing this?...

That’s what happens when too many cooks try to create a dish… they spoil the broth. That is exactly what happened with Sigourney Weaver’s unreleased film in the Alien franchise, and it wasn’t even her fault!

When three directors clashed heads and collided scripts, the end result was a film named Alien V, aka Alien: Awakening, with director Neill Blomkamp helming the project. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances (which were really unfair to a lot of people), his project was put on hold indefinitely and later… canceled.

Sigourney Weaver was almost about to return to the Alien franchise

Fans might remember the iconic actress from the 1979 film Alien, who was the sole survivor of the terrible ordeal involving the Xenomorph. Well, although several sequels had already been made after the ’79 film, the script for Alien V demanded a challenge.

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens | Credits: Brandywine Productions

Well,...

No film can ever hold as much intrigue as the cancelled project, that fabled, elusive "what if?" built up in press events and promo images, only to fall apart and become part of cinema's historical refuse pile. And there is no genre more given to this phenomenon than science fiction. There are sci-fi movies that were discarded by studios decades ago that still manage to cling on to an undead sort of cultural relevance -- a fascination among fans that won't let them truly disappear.

Today, we're looking at some of the most overhyped, widely discussed, heavily promoted, but ultimately never-to-be sci-fi films. It's a collection that undeniably sparks imagination, making us wonder what might have been had studio money lined up in the right way, or rights moved into the proper hands a little sooner, or a big star volunteered to join up.

We'll never know exactly what these movies would have looked like,...

Impacto: Inminente. © Disney+

Disney+ ha compartido un nuevo teaser tráiler y póster de la esperadísima serie Alien: Planeta Tierra, que expandirá (una vez más) el icónico universo cinematográfico de la saga Alien, creada por Ridley Scott, al mismo tiempo que traerá al temible xenomorfo al entorno más familiar –y terrorífico– posible: nuestro querido planeta Tierra. Así es, todo un hito, porque será la primera vez que veremos a la criatura en nuestro hogar.

En Alien: Planeta Tierra, cuando una misteriosa nave espacial se estrella en la Tierra, una joven y un variopinto grupo de soldados tácticos hacen un fatídico descubrimiento que les enfrentará cara a cara con la mayor amenaza del planeta. Mientras los miembros del equipo de rescate buscan supervivientes entre los escombros, se topan con misteriosas formas de vida depredadoras, más terroríficas de lo que jamás hubieran imaginado. Tras conocer esta nueva amenaza, el equipo de búsqueda debe luchar por la supervivencia.

Meet the Newborn…

After spending the last few weeks looking at teen horror films in David Nutter’s Disturbing Behavior (listen) and John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine (listen), we celebrated Alien Day with a look at the much-maligned fourth entry in the franchise: Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection (1997).

In the film, the military resurrects Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) via the cloning process 200 years after her death in Alien 3. During the process, however, her DNA is fused with the Queen Alien, making her motives questionable at best. Once the inevitable happens and the aliens escape, “Ripley” must team up with a group of mercenaries and decide where her allegiances lie.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 331: Alien Resurrection (1997)

Caress your...

"Snow White" is a tale with plenty of gothic horror elements, even in its most Disneyfied form. As such, it's no surprise that the story has been reimagined into a horror movie on occasion. Granted, this is the type of thing that evokes images of Rhys Frake-Waterfield's 2023 feature "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" and the ever-expanding Twisted Childhood Universe it has spawned ... and indeed, Snow White's horror history includes films like the less than exemplary 2012 teen camp slasher, "Snow White: A Deadly Summer."

However, the subject matter has also spawned a truly fascinating gothic horror film starring none other than Sigourney Weaver. 1997's "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" removes all the frills and cutesy aspects of the story, focusing instead on the lean, mean horror at its heart. As it turns out, adopting a comparatively realistic approach to a tale that features a murderous stepmother with supernatural...

Smart Sl*t

After a month spent tackling doppelgänger titles like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (listen) and The Stepford Wives (listen), we briefly hit pause to discuss Panic Room (listen), then went back to doubles with Disturbing Behavior. Now it’s time for a 180 with a look at John Carpenter‘s adaptation of Stephen King‘s book, Christine (1983).

In the film, Keith Gordon stars as Arnie, a shy nerd in high school with a single good friend: Dennis (John Stockwell). When Arnie spots a cherry red 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, however, everything changes…including his behavior.

The once shy and timid boy dresses different, pursues a relationship with new student Leigh (Alexandra Paul), and becomes more aggressive with everyone, including his parents and Dennis. After drawing the ire of a trio of thugs, led by Buddy (William Ostrander), Arnie’s beloved car is destroyed, but the vehicle seems to...

One of this week’s new releases stars Steve Coogan and a penguin, so here’s a film quiz about other actors and their animal co-stars.

They say you should never work with children or animals, but that’s not stopped movie stars teaming up with animal co-stars. There are usually mixed results – even the can’t-lose buddy pairing of “Tom Hanks and a French mastiff” definitely didn’t end happily for both of them (spoilery details here). Now in UK cinemas, Peter Cattaneo’s new movie The Penguin Lessons teams up Partridge and penguin, so we’ve got some quiz questions about other live-action animal star vehicles as part of your usual movie-related trivia safari.

Once you’ve completed this week’s film quiz, you’ll find a link to a separate post with the correct answers at the bottom of this post. As always, this is just for fun,...

More than 30 years after embarking on his Hollywood stunt career, Chad Stahelski is praising the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for finally recognizing the field.

Following AMPAS’ announcement Thursday that Achievement in Stunt Design will become a new category at the 100th Oscars, the John Wick director told Deadline how much he appreciates the Academy “for really putting in the time” with the decision of how best to honor the stunt community.

“None of us [in the industry] would be here if it wasn’t for the last 100 years of stunt people,” noted Stahelski over the phone while overseeing a color-correcting session on Ballerina, which he is producing. “We’ve come a long way because a lot of other people have sacrificed a lot. So, it’s pretty cool to be here and be at the apex of an entire century of performers and coordinators and action directors. And it’s...

No two horror movie villains ever seemed more ideally suited for one another than the Predator and the Alien, the cinema’s greatest hunter and cinema’s deadliest beast.

Created by very different filmmakers in totally different decades, the idea that these two creatures co-existed stems from a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg in “Predator 2,” which briefly showed the head of the iconic Alien inside of a Predator’s trophy case. In the years to come they would share top billing in comic books, video games and eventually a couple of movies, to the extent that the two franchises now feel indelibly linked, even when new installments of each monster’s movie makes no mention of the other.

Let’s take a look at both series, together, to see how the films stack up individually and as a unit.

14. “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007) 20th Century Fox

Lots of poorly made movies are hard to watch,...

In 1997, director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Edward Neumeier, the makers of 1987's "RoboCop," reteamed to make "Starship Troopers," a satirical take on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel. "Starship Troopers" takes place in a future where Earth has, for many decades, been at war with giant, intelligent insects from a distant planet. Human society, however, has devolved into a fascist state, and people have all become empty-headed, fist-pumping propaganda vehicles. Media has become bite-sized, and in-your-face. It's no coincidence that the humans are all wearing very Nazi-like uniforms by the film's end. 

"Starship Troopers" wasn't fully appreciated in 1997. It got mostly negative reviews, and many critics didn't seem to pick up on its more satirical elements. It was also only a modest hit, making $121 million on a $100 million budget (sizable at the time). Since then, however, it found its audience, proliferating on home video and on the midnight movie circuit. Its...

Celebrating final girls isn’t uncommon practice in the horror world. In fact, if anything, we celebrate quite a number of final girls on a consistent basis, including Sally Hardesty (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the reboot), Ripley, Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 + 3 and New Nightmare) Sidney Prescott (Scream 1-5 and soon 7) and more. Those ladies get their fair share of recognition from horror fans, but what about the other final girls? What about the final girls who are underdiscussed?

There should always be room for discussion of final girls who might not be well known, part of a major franchise, or belong to several marginalized communities. There are a few recent final girls that have received recognition, like Em (Nope), Beth (Evil Dead Rise), Sienna Shaw (Terrifier 2 and 3), Sam Carpenter (Scream 5 and 6), Rain (Alien: Romulus) and more. But the following final girls are the ones that don...

Quick LinksMovies Coming to NetflixMovies Coming to Paramount+Movies Coming to HuluMovies Coming to PeacockMovies Coming to ShudderMovies Coming to Prime VideoMovies Coming to Max

Movies serve as more than simply a medium through which we get experience; they are an emotion we like to incorporate into our lives. Numerous films are released each month on multiple streaming services, which is quite convenient for many of us. However, with so many alternatives at hand, it can be a hassle to pick the right film. To make things easier, we've compiled a directory of every film coming to major streaming services in March 2025, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more.

Movies Coming to Netflix

Netflix

Here's every movie coming to Netflix in March 2025:

Annie (2014) — March 1

Black Hawk Down (2001) — March 1

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982) — March 1

Cell 211 (2009) — March 1

Midnight in the Switchgrass — March 1

Runaway Jury (2003) — March 1

Sicario (2016) — March 1

Ted (2012) — March...

To do a little fun sci-fi time-crunching, Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien" takes place in the year 2122, which was, by the "Star Trek" timeline, about 30 years before the events of "Star Trek: Enterprise." James Cameron's "Aliens" skips ahead to 2179, about 25 years after "Enterprise," but still about 75 years before anything from the original "Star Trek" series. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Alien: Resurrection" skips ahead again, this time to the year 2379, which was the same year "Star Trek: Nemesis" took place. 

Of course, the "Alien" movies and the "Star Trek" shows definitely take place in separate universes. The "Alien" movies are marked by their cynicism, usually depicting shifty, profit-driven company men who aim to retrieve alien xenomorphs for nefarious purposes, no matter the human cost the retrieval requires. "Star Trek," meanwhile, is marked by its optimism, depicting a future wherein a galactic Federation ensures peace, study, and diplomacy throughout the cosmos. One...

As Spring quickly approaches, Hulu is set to offer its subscribers a batch of films they will definitely want to check out. As one of the original streaming services to grace the small screen, the platform continues to add a wide variety of films and shows to its catalog. Thankfully, March proves to be no different.

With plenty of Hulu originals in the bunch, there will definitely be a variety of options to choose from. From documentaries to horror to unique rock operas, the films are sure to be an eclectic array of enthralling stories. No matter what audiences are in the mood to watch, the streaming platform surely has them covered next month.

'Alien' Franchise Stream on March 1

With Alien: Romulus already streaming on Hulu, viewers will now be able to check out the entire Alien franchise at the beginning of the month. Starting with Alien in 1979, Aliens,...

March is set to be a big month for Hulu, with a packed lineup of movies and shows heading to the streaming service. Things kick off on March 1 with a huge drop of over 50 films, including some major fan favorites.

Sci-fi lovers have plenty to look forward to as Hulu adds nearly the entire Alien franchise to its catalog. Viewers will be able to stream Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, Alien: Covenant, and Prometheus. Prey and Alien: Romulus are already available, so this update brings the full saga together in one place.

For those more interested in award-winning dramas, March 1 also brings several critically acclaimed films, including American Hustle, Brooklyn, Jojo Rabbit, Good Will Hunting, The Social Network, and Sideways.

The Oscars will also be a major event on Hulu this month. The streaming service will air the live broadcast of the Academy Awards on March...

The Alien franchise is thriving following the release of the latest feature film last year and the first TV show in 2025. Meanwhile, fans can revisit all installments of the franchise on one streaming platform at the start of the new month.

Per Hulu, March 1 will mark the addition of all Alien franchise movies to the streaming service. The films that will be added to Hulu on that date include all four movies featuring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) will also be added. Rounding out the additions are the two Predator crossover movies, which will also be included: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

Related'That Was the Original Plan': Alien: Romulus Was Supposed to Be a Secret Spinoff

Alien: Romulus was a huge hit for director Fede Álvarez

These additions will put every Alien film on one platform,...

One of Alien: Romulus' shocking reveals happened behind the scenes, when it was confirmed the Offspring sequence was filmed with a real actor wearing prosthetics. However, that creature's introduction was replaced with CGI after the film first screened with a test audience.

Alien: Romulus was a return to form for the franchise with its reliance on practical effects, and it showed in the visceral scenes of Xenomorphs and facehuggers. The Offspring blindsided fans in the final act, however; many suspected Kay (played by Isabela Merced) would birth an abomination but no one expected That. The creature has been compared to the Newborn from Alien: Resurrection, which used animatronics to flesh out the hybrid. A VFX head told Screen Rant that the Offspring was filmed using a real actor wearing prosthetics, save for two sequences.

RelatedAlien: Romulus Home Release Fixes Controversial CGI 'Resurrection' of Deceased Alien Star

The home release of...

Following the success of Alien: Romulus last August, fans won't have to wait too long for the latest addition to the Alienfranchise. Scheduled for a summer 2025 debut on Hulu, the beloved sci-fi creature-feature catalog will expand to the small screen for the first time with the release of the ongoing FX series Alien: Earth.

While Alien: Romulus takes place between the first and second Alien movies from the '70s and '80s, the new show will be their prequel. Written and directed by Noah Hawley (Fargo) and executive produced by the first installment's Ridley Scott, viewers will get to see the infamous Xenomorphs on Earth (obviously), in an effort to explore new ground while returning to the innovative narrative that made its predecessors so iconic. Although little has been revealed about the upcoming series, here's everything we know so far about where it fits in the overall timeline, plot and cast details,...

Michael Fassbender, the Hollywood star of films like Inglourious Basterds, X-Men: First Class and The Killer, has expressed interest in returning to the Alien franchise to make another sequel. Fassbender gave life to David in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, two essential but divisive entries in the universe created by Ridley Scott. However, Fassbender's comments suggest that his love of the franchise is down to one man alone; Ridley Scott. While Scott acted as producer and advisor on both Alien: Romulus, and the upcoming TV seires Alien: Earth, it is not clear whether Fassbender would only consider a return if he was being directed by Scott.

Fassbender recently spoke to Esquire about his latest TV show, The Agency. Based on the French thriller The Bureau, the series follows Brandon Colby, aka Martian, an international spy living undercover. It premiered on Showtime last November, and its last episode ran a few days ago.

The following article contains spoilers for 1979’s Alien.Veronica Cartwright, the actor known for her role as Lambert in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic Alien, has confirmed something about the chestburster scene that has always been discussed by those who participated in the film: the shock by the actors during the scene was very authentic, because they did not know firsthand how everything would happen.

Although she's not widely recognized as a horror icon, Cartwright is a veteran in the genre. When she was a teenager, she starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and later appeared in horror films like 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Witches of Eastwick. However, it was her role as Joan Lambert in Alien that made her a scream queen, even though her character met her demise in the sci-fi horror movie.

In the film, an intergalactic space crew responds to...

Image Source: 20th Century Studios After three groundbreaking Alien films—1979’s haunting Alien, 1986’s iconic Aliens, and 1992’s underrated Alien 3—Sigourney Weaver thought she was completely done with the franchise. She had no intention of slipping back into Ellen Ripley’s shoes again. Ripley’s story, Weaver believed, had been told. She was ready to close that chapter of her career and explore new horizons. And for a while, she did just that. Weaver fully embraced a variety of projects, confident that Ripley’s fight against the iconic Xenomorphs had reached its natural conclusion. But as fans know, her story wasn’t quite over. Weaver surprised the world—and perhaps even herself—when she returned to the Alien universe in Alien: Resurrection. What brought her back? At the time of the film’s release, Weaver reflected on how her initial skepticism turned into excitement over the project. (Click on the...

Impacto: Inminente. © Disney+

Disney+ ha compartido el primer teaser tráiler y un nuevo póster de la esperadísima serie Alien: Planeta Tierra, que expandirá (una vez más) el icónico universo cinematográfico de la saga Alien, creada por Ridley Scott, al mismo tiempo que traerá al temible xenomorfo al entorno más familiar –y terrorífico– posible: nuestro querido planeta Tierra. Así es, todo un hito, porque será la primera vez que veremos a la criatura en nuestro hogar.

En Alien: Planeta Tierra, cuando una misteriosa nave espacial se estrella en la Tierra, una joven y un variopinto grupo de soldados tácticos hacen un fatídico descubrimiento que les enfrentará cara a cara con la mayor amenaza del planeta. Mientras los miembros del equipo de rescate buscan supervivientes entre los escombros, se topan con misteriosas formas de vida depredadoras, más terroríficas de lo que jamás hubieran imaginado. Tras conocer esta nueva amenaza, el equipo de...

Michael Fassbender is open to appearing in a sequel to ‘Alien: Covenant’.The 47-year-old actor starred in director Sir Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ prequels ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Covenant’ as the androids David 8 and Walter One and has said he would "for sure" want to return for another entry in the sci-fi series.In an interview with Esquire, the ‘X-Men: First Class’ star said: "I mean, I love working with Ridley. It was such a great experience. He's phenomenal, he's such an inspiration. You know, he does these big films. They're so difficult to make, and he's a master. He's fantastic."Fassbender’s co-star Katherine Waterston - who played space explorer Daniels in the two ‘Alien’ prequels - also recently said she’d be keen to return for a third movie.She told Inverse: "Keep David coming. [He’s] just this amazing character. I like to think that Daniels made it out of the pod,...

The Xenomorphs have come to our planet in the new official teaser trailer for Alien: Earth. A new poster for the upcoming FX on Hulu series has also been unveiled.

Alien: Earth, the first official TV series for the Alien franchise, is in the works with a planned release for sometime this year. As the wait continues, FX has dropped a new trailer that highlights how Earth serves as the setting for the show. Though running at just 30 seconds long, the teaser is intense, following the point of view of a Xenomorph heading straight toward Earth in a crash-landing ship. The new poster further highlights the Xenomorph's arrival along with the tagline, "We were safer in space." Fans can check out both the new teaser trailer and poster below.

Related One of the Best 2024 Sci-Fi Films Is a Streaming Success on Disney+

The movie was a big commercial and critical success.

If you ask any Alien fan, they’ll tell you that the franchise just hasn’t been the same without Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley at the center. Last seen in 1997’s Alien Resurrection and then again in the video game Alien: Isolation, the fearless sci-fi queen who made hunting down xenomorphs look like just another bad day […]

Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley Is Set to Return to Alien in an Unexpected Way Written by Jarrod Saunders for Fortress of Solitude...

This year's Oscar nominations are like most year's Oscar nominations: a mix of snubs (Challengers was completely shut out) and mostly pleasant surprises (Academy voters got around to watching The Apprentice after all), your reaction to which may vary depending on your personal taste as well as your capacity for caring about awards in such a precarious time. But one nomination in particular feels particularly egregious. Alien: Romulus, a perfectly good Alien sequel, received a nod for Best Visual Effects – arguably the one nomination it didn't deserve.

You probably know where this is heading. It's not that Alien: Romulus doesn't generally have good visual effects. Set between Ridley Scott's Alien, which I consider to be the best film of all time, and James Cameron's Aliens, one of the best sequels of all time, Fede Álvarez's entry successfully splits the difference between both. Álvarez's film is more indebted to Scott's 1979 classic,...

Peter Jackson had always been a bit frustrated about something during the making of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but that frustration wasn’t destined to last forever. His unfulfilled wish, one that lingered in the back of his mind for years, finally came true with The Hobbit films.

Peter Jackson. | Image by Mike Walen, licensed under Cca-by-sa-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

While the Rings trilogy changed the landscape of cinema, Jackson was still dreaming of a certain creative opportunity. And when the time came to revisit Middle-earth, he made sure to go all in.

Peter Jackson’s CGI dream: Bringing orcs to life in The Hobbit after The Lord of the Rings A still from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

Peter Jackson’s biggest unfulfilled wish during The Lord of the Rings trilogy was something fans might not have noticed, until it came true in The Hobbit.

Winona Ryder's best movies and TV shows highlight an iconic career that features a number of beloved projects going back over several decades. The American actor started working professionally in the mid-1980s and quickly found success with her breakout role in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. She continued to score some other iconic teen roles before moving on to young adult roles in the 1990s, which earned her more acclaim and a couple of Oscar nominations.

While Ryder's career slowed down in the 2000s, she made a successful comeback on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Ryder has shown stunning versatility as an actress, with hilarious comedic roles, intense dramatic roles, and even the chance to play the hero now and then. Looking back on her amazing career, it is not hard to see how Ryder still has so many fans given the many wonderful projects she has been a part of.

Alien: Romulus' latest sequel update alludes to the same challenge the franchise faced 39 years ago. Alien: Romulus gained commercial and critical acclaim when it was released in 2024, introducing a new younger cast of characters, and following the long-established tradition of final girls in the Alien franchise. The newest Alien movie grossed $350 million at the box office worldwide, placing itself just under 2012’s Prometheus, and has an 80% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. Ranking as one of the highest-earning Alien movies, it therefore comes as no surprise that an Alien: Romulus sequel has been discussed by director, Fede Álvarez.

Alien: Romulus soft-rebooted the Alien franchise with a brand-new story, following Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her synthetic brother Andy (David Jonsson) as she journeys alongside friends to a nearby abandoned Weyland-Yutani station. The group encounters a few surprises on the vessel as they try to steal cryostasis equipment to help them leave their rundown system.

With Alien: Romulus, director Fede Alvarez aimed to make something that neatly slotted between Alien and Aliens – returning to the original two classics, while also liberally referencing everything from Alien: Resurrection and Prometheus, to the beloved Alien: Isolation video game. As a result, his film brought new characters and variations on the Alien mythology – but was all about capturing that legendary iconography anew.

If a Romulus sequel does happen, though, it seems Alvarez plans to go in the opposite direction – taking Alien somewhere more unexpected. “Rodo [Sayagues, co-writer] and I are working on that right now,” the filmmaker tells Empire. “We’re excited about where it can go. We’ve almost checked all of the boxes of things that I want to see [in Romulus], and brought back a lot of the things I hadn’t seen in a while. Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters.” The plan, he hints,...

After the original "Alien" in 1979, every subsequent film seems to have featured certain elements that immediately resulted in backlash among audiences. James Cameron's sequel was criticized for stripping away the horror and replacing it with dumbed-down action, while "Alien 3" represented fan discontentment on a grand scale by killing off beloved heroes Newt and Hicks ... before doing the same with its own leading lady, Ripley. Both of Ridley Scott's prequel films rubbed many viewers the wrong way, despite gaining more and more appreciators over the years, but it's safe to say that last year's "Alien: Romulus" was meant as a much-needed return to form.

In many ways, it did exactly that -- perhaps a little too well, as /Film's Chris Evangelista wrote about in his review -- but it also continued the franchise's grand tradition of alienating (pun most definitely intended) audiences with another divisive creative choice.

This time around,...

When Alien: Romulus arrived last summer, it brought cinema’s greatest sci-fi-horror franchise screaming into new life, chestbursting a new Xenomorph rampage onto the big screen. And for the most part, Fede Alvarez’s film – set between the events of Alien and Aliens – revelled in played around with the established iconography of the series so far, touching on everything from Prometheus to Alien: Resurrection, while also liberally paying homage to Ridley Scott and James Cameron’s classics.

Those callbacks didn’t always come without controversy – one surprise awaiting audiences was the arrival of android character Rook, given the face of the late, great Ian Holm (with his estate’s permission), who played nefarious ‘bot Ash in Scott’s original Alien. The result on screen, though, was somewhat uncanny – which became the subject of much discussion among fans. Even Alvarez wasn’t quite convinced. “We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right,...

James Gunn’s Dcu is officially underway and it is high time a few casting choices are made for some key characters in the universe. The filmmaker and co-chief of DC Studios has maintained that no greenlight will be given for a project unless it has a solid script and seems to be giving time to set up solo films. However, all of them need to lead up to a huge villain.

Josh Brolin, who played Thanos in the MCU, recently shared a fanart of himself in the design of Darkseid. This fueled the rumors that Brolin was still in talks with Gunn after he refused the offer to play Hal Jordan a.k.a Green Lantern in the Dcu. While casting Brolin as Darkseid, who is basically DC’s Thanos is not a good choice, there are other actors who fit the bill.

1. Javier Bardem Javier Bardem in Dune:...

The Alien franchise has a rich mythology that has raised many questions that viewers have speculated about since Ridley Scott released the first movie back in 1979. While aspects of the Xenomorph’s lifecycle and the origins of this alien species were expanded upon in subsequent sequels, prequels, and spin-offs, there are still plenty of mysteries at the heart of this series. Although Scott’s underrated prequel series, which includes Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, answered some questions, it also added new layers of mystery and complexity to the franchise.

As one of the greatest sci-fi franchises ever made, Alien has provided endless entertainment to generations of viewers and has continued with new installments right up to this day. As a franchise that’s been helmed by several iconic directors, including Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher, the series has always been bustling with creativity and interesting ideas. As the series proved...

2024 has been a stellar year for horror movies. A wide variety of major studio and independent horror movies hit theaters this year, and while not all of them were winners, there were some incredible standouts. Movies like Alien: Romulus breathed new life into a much-beloved horror franchise. Other 2024 offerings, like Longlegs, presented a standalone horror experience that instantly became a cult classic.

So, which 2024 horror movies rose to the top? This year brought horror fans a lot of strong contenders, from Abigail to MaXXXine to Heretic. Let's take a look at the 12 best scary movies of 2024, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes scores.

Alien: Romulus is the Best-Rated Alien Movie in Decades Released on August 16, 2024

Rotten Tomatoes Scores:

Tomatometer: 80% Popcornmeter: 85% Certified Fresh?: Yes

Alien: Romulus has some big shoes to fill. Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) are two of the most beloved sci-fi horror films ever made. Many of the following entries,...

The Alien movies amount to one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time, and they have several recurring themes and occurrences in every installment. Starting with Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film, the Alien franchise has also been helmed by iconic directors like James Cameron and David Fincher, who added to the series lore while leaning into the aspects that made the original such an all-time favorite. With the terrifying Xenomorph as an unstoppable Lovecraftian antagonist, viewers have come to recognize some repeated tropes that recur throughout each entry.

With a rich mythology that brings together action, horror, and sci-fi genres, the Alien movies were far from predictable, although they still had some tenets that tied them all together. From the feminist heroism of protagonists like Ellen Ripley to the terrifying reproduction processes of the Xenomorph, the Alien franchise has carved out an important place in popular culture. As...

The Terminator is one of the most beloved Sci-Fi franchises of all time, as it perfectly blends action and horror elements with truly iconic ideas about what the future holds for humanity. The series presents an evil AI called Skynet that wipes out the vast majority of the human race by launching nuclear warheads around the world, and then it attempts to finish off the remainder of humans with its killer robots dubbed Terminators. So, humanity has to go back in time to keep this grim future from ever happening, and Skynet does the same with its Terminators.

The Terminator is a wild concept that fans have been loving since the very first film back in the ‘80s, and it’s a franchise that’s still going strong to this day. It’s so iconic, in fact, that The Terminator has actually invaded other franchises on numerous occasions in the past,...

One of the cool things about the "Alien" movies, at least before Ridley Scott returned to make the (underrated!) "Prometheus" in 2012, is that the franchise has served as a sandbox for all sorts of directors to play around in. After Scott gave us a horror classic with 1979's "Alien," James Cameron swooped in to make an action thriller with 1986's "Aliens." After that, David Fincher stopped by in 1992 to make a very bleak prison drama with "Alien 3," only for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet to turn around and put his own spin on the property with 1997's "Alien: Resurrection."

Did this approach always work? Not really, but it did give the "Alien" franchise a fun, experimental feel. So many sequels have been criticized for basically being a redo of the first movie, but outside of "Alien: Romulus" you could never accuse the "Alien" property of having this problem. That's why it's...

This article contains discussion of sexual assault.

Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien spawned a massive movie franchise, and its ending battle between Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the xenomorph still captures imaginations over forty years later. From its brilliantly dark take on the science fiction genre to its timeless practical effects, Alien has easily cemented itself as one of the best movies of all time. The franchise it spawned is also one of the greatest in film history, and the ending of the original Alien is so important to all that came after it that it's still worth examining today.

In the final moments of Alien, the xenomorph begins killing the entire crew of the Nostromo except for Ripley. After they discovered Ash (Ian Holm) was a synthetic, the crew decided to enable the ship's self-destruct feature and escape via the shuttle. After Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright...

Despite the Alien franchise having three upcoming movies and TV shows, none of them really have the means to bring back Sigourney Weaver's iconic Ellen Ripley. Ellen Ripley is one of the best characters in the Alien movies, having survived her encounters with various Xenomorphs across three installments, with her clone appearing in the fourth film. As a result, Sigourney Weaver has a well-earned reputation through the Alien franchise for starting the final girl trend, which is still adhered to with recent Alien movies' protagonists, namely Cailee Spaeny's Rain Carradine in the 2024 movie Alien: Romulus.

As one of the Alien movies' most memorable protagonists, some fans of the sci-fi franchise want to see the return of Ripley in future projects. Other sequels have effectively brought back previous characters decades after their original appearance, as evidenced by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice's box office record-breaking success in the summer of 2024, showing that it is possible and profitable.

This is not a list of the worst movies of 2024. In fact, this list is unique in that it contains movies that are good, bad, and somewhere in between. But they all have one thing in common: each and every film on this list let us down in some way. They hurt us a little. They left us wounded. They took our expectations and gave them a painful kick in the rear.

We generally try to stay away from "worst of" lists here at /Film — they're largely worthless, especially since few people actually get around to seeing the actual worst movies of a given year. However, a list of the 10 most disappointing movies of 2024 is a far more interesting proposition. These are the movies that had our undivided attention until they didn't. For some of them, their great sin was being merely pretty good when we were hoping for something extraordinary.

2024 was a great year for horror movies. Especially if you looked into the margins.

While the genre sometimes struggled at the box office (with a few noteworthy exceptions) over the past twelve months, genre buffs looking for a good scare actually had plenty of options at every turn. There were surprisingly thrilling mainstream releases from major studios, dark horse smash hits from smaller distributors, and enough winners in the nooks and crannies of streaming to fill a dozen horror-centric lists. As a platform for creative endeavors from exciting filmmakers, horror has never been healthier.

Nor has it been scarier. The /Film team sat down to hash out and rank the 10 scariest horror movies of 2024, a process that involved cutting a lot of great movies and then somehow finding a way to rank the survivors. Movies like "Immaculate" and "Terrifier 3" barely missed the cut, while films like "Civil War" got...

While the Alien franchise largely focuses on Ellen Ripley's endless vendetta against the Xenomorph, the chest-busting, acid-spitting extraterrestrial menace has taken out entire space crews over the course of its cinematic lifespan. Some of its victims have been rather forgettable, but among the various missions in the Alien movies, there have also been a number of memorable and endearing supporting characters.

Ridley Scott's original Alien in 1979 and James Cameron's lauded sequel, Aliens, are regarded among the finest sci-fi horror movies of all time, but the franchise hasn't always had it easy. Between Fincher's much-maligned threequel, the chaotic Alien: Resurrection, and Scott's highly divisive prequels, Prometheus and Covenant, Alien-enjoyers have had to endure drastic changes to canon, a couple of Ripley rebirths, and controversial Xenomorph mash-ups. One thing's for sure, though, each and every one of the installments in the series, including the latest, Alien: Romulus,...

Alien: Romulus promised to bring the franchise back to its roots, and while it delivered on that, it still had time to reference Ridley Scott’s prequels thanks to a major Prometheus connection. With Romulus being the first Alien movie in seven years as well as the first Alien film to be produced following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it only made sense for it to be the start of a new story rather than a direct sequel to Alien: Covenant. Set between the first and second movies in the Alien timeline, Romulus was very much a standalone film.

While there are plenty of Alien Easter eggs in Romulus, the movie works just fine for those who never watched any of the Alien movies. The fact that Alien: Romulus is getting a sequel only confirms that it was meant to be the start of a new chapter in the series...

Stars: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Rosie Ede, Robert Bobroczkyi, Trevor Newlin | Written by Fede Alverez, Rodo Sayagues | Directed by Fede Alverez

The 7th instalment of the Alien franchise brings some new faces, some new ideas, and some old ones too.

Cailee Spaeny has had a breakout 12 months, from her brilliant performance in Priscilla last year, to one of the year’s best films in Civil War. Now Spaeny stars in Alien: Romulus as Rain, a young girl trapped on a run-down planet, trying to find a way off for her and her adopted synthetic brother. After her efforts of working her way off the planet are halted, her chance of escape comes when a group of seemingly old friends find an abandoned Weyland ship floating just out of the planet’s atmosphere. The group realises the ship has enough supplies to take...

The Alien franchise has had a rocky road since its inception in 1979. Directed by Ridley Scott, the first installment introduced the Xenomorph to the world, which remains one of the most iconic creature designs of all time. The debut Alien also created one of the most well-known movie heroines in history in the form of Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley.

After James Cameron's hit sequel, Aliens, in 1986, the franchise took a turn for the worse. Alien 3 (1992) was (and remains) divisive, and Alien: Resurrection marked a new franchise low in terms of its critical reception. The franchise then lay dormant for 15 years until Scott returned to make two prequels, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), the latter of which was a disappointment critically and at the box office. After a new director took the reins, however, things are now looking up for the Alien franchise.

Alien: Romulus Becomes A Streaming Hit...

The Alien franchise's Xenomorph melds with a spider to become a terrifying new creature in creative fan art. Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 sci-fi horror was the first film to introduce the Xenomorph, chronicling one crew's futile attempt at survival after encountering the creature in deep space. The film was a hit, and there have now been seven Alien movies in total, with several of the later installments introducing new takes on the iconic Xenomorph design.

Artist Bad_blood_custom now imagines their own take on the Alien franchise's Xenomorph, depicting a hybrid version of the creature crossed with a spider. Instead of making the titular alien bipedal, as it traditionally appears, the first image gives the Xenomorph seven legs. The creature's iconic head design remains largely unchanged, but it now does have several pincer-like limbs by its mouth. Check out the first image below:

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Warning: Spoilers for Alien: Romulus below!The sinister android Rook infiltrated Andy's mind, but did he fully take him over in Alien: Romulus? While 2024's Alien: Romulus was a healthy box office success that received broadly positive reviews (it stands at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes), it received critiques over its excessive number of callbacks. Romulus is filled with Alien easter eggs, with some being extremely on the nose. The most divisive element of the sequel has been the way the late, great Ian Holm was resurrected via CGI as the villainous Rook, who is the same model android as Ash from the original film.

A movie recreating a deceased performer with visual effects has been a sticky issue ever since Rogue One used Peter Cushing's likeness for Moff Tarkin; that said, Romulus' use of Rook makes a certain amount of sense within the Alien movie franchise, considering there must have...

Fans of the Alien franchise will no longer be able to watch three of the series' films on Hulu after Dec. 31. Alien, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection will leave the streaming platform at the end of the year.

The Alien franchise launched in 1979 with the titular film, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. With a cast that included Sigourney Weaver and Tom Skerritt, Alien followed a simple premise, detailing the events of spaceship crew as they are hunted by a deadly alien creature. While the film initially received mixed reviews from critics, Alien won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and would later become regarded as one of the most influential sci-fi/horror films of all time. The success of Ridley Scott's Alien launched the franchise, which has gone on to spawn more films, books and video games.

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