Terror is back, the alien type of terror. Do you remember the terrifying image of a larva alien exploding out of a bloody human body—ravenous—and moving like a bullet in search of a new host? That terrifying image was in the very first “Alien” installment (1979) and has, in many ways, come to symbolize the deep seated terror “we” hold for the unknown—so close—that is
bound to destroy us all.
In director Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” which follows the spaceship “Prometheus” into our modern world, the franchise installment, which made Sigourney Weaver a female hero and a mega-watt superstar almost 40 years ago, is just as terrifyingly interesting. The core theme is that big-brother management is pure evil, and like all big corporations (sound eerily familiar), they don’t care if the population suffers as long as “they” profit.
Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” does not disappoint the fans of the horror brand. It taps into our primal fears and mixes them—effectively—into our current terrors, those sinking feelings about the 1 percent, the ultimate “big brother,” using us all for their benefit.
Masterful storyteller Scott parcels out carefully measured portions of fascination and adrenaline-pushing terror, with just enough sadistic skill, to make sure that we come back for the next installment in this lucrative and satisfying franchise.
The story begins 10 years after the events of the spaceship Prometheus, which ended in disaster, and now the starship Covenant going deeper into space in search of anything that can turn a massive profit. Per usual, the crew is an archetypical collection of those who consider space, the final frontier, to be the biggest achievement in their lives. In this franchise installment, we have a collection of married couples— James Franco and Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride and Amy Seimetz, Demián Bichir and Nathaniel Dean, Billy Crudup and Carmen Ejogo—and others whose ugly intentions and snarky personalities clearly earmark them for a certain alien encounter.
No spoiler alerts here, but please, be mindful, this is Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” and most of the crew die, horribly. To wit, Franco’s character, the captain of the Covenant, is the first to meet a gruesome end, his spectral presence shown in videos that bring his widow crippling grief.
The first mate (Bill Crudup) assumes command and lands the ship on a lifeless planet (Origae-6), which happens to be the very spot where the Prometheus disappeared.
To greet them is a chatty robot, David, who has a perfect British accent and is acquainted with the basics of human culture and the arts. Sadly, David has been studying and caring for the very alien that wiped out the Prometheus crew and has grown to truly distrust human beings.
Everything about Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” speaks to a tremendous hit and perhaps is the making of a new horror classic. There is gloom and shadows of the creepy planet, Origae-6, and the silent-as-a-crypt, scrubbed clean, antiseptic corridors of the spaceship Covenant, all of which makes for a perfect horror-movie environment. We all know, more or less, what’s coming, but the jolt when the alien arrives is just like that with the very first “Alien.”