One word: “Run.” This seems to be the tagline for the new upcoming sequel Alien: Covenant. A red-band trailer was recently released, which gave us a glimpse at how the terrifying tone and claustrophobic atmosphere is being brought back to the franchise. While I do think James Cameron’s Aliens is one hell of an action packed sequel, I always preferred the original. The original Alien is such an intense horror film. I really never considered it to be sci-fi film, rather I saw it as a horror film set in a sci-fi setting.
After the ambitious but ultimately disappointing Prometheus, many questions were left unanswered. Many of us had figured out before it’s release that we were witnessing the prequel to the original Alien. Director Ridley Scott would deny time and time again that this was true, even though the trailers gave us hints at this revelation. Scott is once again taking control of Alien Covenant, and has promised to give us answers to the many mysteries that Prometheus gave us.
The new bloody trailer is extremely light on context and story, as I wasn’t even sure if this is taking place before or after Prometheus. This isn’t a con to the trailer as the less known the better. The trailer gave us shots of the returning character David, played by Michael Fassbender, but we have yet to see footage of Noomi Rapace’s character Elizabeth Shaw. David had his whole body in tact in the trailer, so we know that much!
The film subtitle “Covenant” is given as this the name of new crew exploring the planet LV-223. The mission of this new batch of doomed astronauts is still unknown. The trailer mainly focused on giving us scenes of tension, beginning with a disturbing moment where a woman is begging another character to let her out as her friend is convulsing and his body starts to contort (we’re going to go off the assumption that something’s about to burst out of his chest as well). The scene then cuts to the woman grabbing a knife to defend herself against this unseen force. While this franchise has not been great since it’s first two films, I have high hopes with Ridley Scott back back at the helm. I’ll forgive him for Prometheus if he’s able to once again capture the same magic of the original.
