Alien: Romulus Pays Tribute To Alien: Isolation With... Telephones?

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Alien: Romulus, the latest movie in the iconic Alien franchise, is about to drop in cinemas courtesy of director Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don't Breathe).

Now, in an interview with Total Film (thanks, VGC), Álvarez highlights an interesting connection to Creative Assembly's remarkable survival horror game, Alien: Isolation. According to Álvarez, he paid tribute to the game by strategically placing telephones within the movie to indicate that a scary moment might be just around the corner.

This is in reference to the emergency telephone save points in Alien: Isolation, which Álvarez stated would always make him feel nervous, as he attributed their placement to an increased likelihood of a scary in-game moment.

Here's what Álvarez had to say:

"The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone. In the game, every time you knew there's a phone you'd go, 'F***, I'm about to go into some bad set-piece.' It's the same thing here. You'll see they're planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it's like: brace for impact."

He also credited Alien: Isolation with making him realize that it was still possible to make the Xenomorph genuinely scary in the modern day:

"Alien: Isolation was kind of what made me see that Alien could truly be terrifying and done well [today]. I played a few years after it came out. Don't Breathe was coming out. Or was I waiting for Don't Breathe to come out, and I was playing the game. That's why, at the time, I was like, 'F***, if I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and scare the audience again with that creature and those environments.' I was playing, and realising how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone."

Official reviews for Alien: Romulus have yet to be released at the time of writing, but early impressions via social media have been positive so far. The movie launches on 16th August 2024.