Alien: Romulus was a hit in theaters, and it’s creeping its way into your home. Now streaming on digital and Hulu, the latest entry in the Alien sci-fi horror franchise is getting the expected Blu-ray and 4K physical releases—but collectors of a certain nostalgic persuasion will also be able to pick up the movie on VHS.
With that in mind (as well as the burning question everyone’s asking: Romulus sequel when?), io9 got a chance to talk to director and co-writer Fede Alvarez, whose other credits include 2013’s Evil Dead and 2016’s Don’t Breathe.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: What are your thoughts on Alien: Romulus being the first VHS released by Disney in nearly 30 years?
Fede Alvarez: Well, it was my idea, so I’m really excited by it. It all started when we released that scene and a trailer on VHS. That was partly because I didn’t want to release a scene too soon. I didn’t want to spoil a moment of the movie too early on the promotion side. The compromise we made with the studio was like, “Okay, well, I’ll release it, but we’ll [do it on] VHS.” I knew that people that were going to [watch] the scene had, [much like me], an emotional connection with the original movie—that [they] discovered it on VHS, the first one, and then the second one maybe [they saw] in theaters but also watched on VHS.
So when we did that, we found out that it’s still a thing—you can actually mass-produce VHS, which everybody thought was not a thing [anymore]. So [after we did the promotional scene], we thought, “Wow, we’ve got to release [the movie] on VHS.”
And it’s really something. It is very easy to be seen just as a stunt, just as a promotional thing, but it’s not at all for me. I discovered those movies in that format and that vibe and that style, that sort of color range and spectrum of sound—it has such a very specific vibe to it that as soon as you play it, as soon as I play it, it just takes me there. It puts a magic on it because I—you know, I was born in ‘78, so when the boom of VHS was happening, that was when I was discovering films. And so it was very special for me that the studio actually agreed to do it. If I love it, someone else out there will love it too.
io9: What are some of your early memories of going to the video store or watching horror movies on VHS?
Alvarez: That was how we discovered movies: you go to the video store, you look around, you had rented everything. Particularly where I’m from in Uruguay—this is pre- Blockbuster, when it was just a small store [where] someone got a license to be able to rent VHS; it started as a little shelf that they expanded and expanded. That’s how it was in the ‘80s.
I think there’s many movies today that I might have not seen, but I still remember the cover, the back of the cover where it says about the movie. They were just too scary! Particularly when it comes to horror movies—you walk by the box, you didn’t even dare to look at it, but it was always there waiting for you. But that’s how I discovered a lot of movies and changed my life. I still remember, after I’d seen a lot of the more standards—the Friday the 13ths, A Nightmare on Elm Street, all those—to be craving for more and asking the guy at the desk for something more hardcore. And he just put Evil Dead on the table, and was like, “I didn’t give you this movie. Take it, but I didn’t give it to you.” I was 13 and traumatized by that movie at the time—it was terrifying. So that’s really been the way I discovered movies. There was nothing better than, Friday night, go rent a movie, come home, watch it. Those were the days.
io9: As the director, what’s your take on people potentially watching Romulus on VHS for the first time?
Alvarez: I love that. That would be the best. If someone didn’t get [to see it in theaters]— someone my age might be more skeptical about it, like “Why would I want to watch [on VHS]?” But I think that person would love it if they were watching VHS because the exercise in style that we did in the movie with [cinematographer Galo Oliveras] and Naaman Marshall, the production designer, it was extreme. When it came to selecting the right colors of every little light in the cockpit—every decision that was made [was] really, really, really curated to make sure it felt like Alien. All you have to do is add the wrong colors in the cockpit and it won’t feel Alien anymore. So we took it to extremes to really make sure it felt like a movie that could belong between Alien and Aliens.
And if you add the VHS treatment, it seals the deal. It’s really hard to tell the difference. It’s really hard to even feel like it’s been shot today. It feels [like] what I think films of this kind should be: timeless. They just feel timeless.
© 20th Century Studiosio9: A sequel to Romulus has been rumored—can you give us any updates on that?
Alvarez: Well, I mean, we definitely want to do it. The studio wants to do it. I want to do it. I think with sequels, it’s always about finding the right story. Me and Rodo [Sayagues], my co-writer, we have some ideas, but it’s not until we find something that we go “Ok, that is a movie worth making” that we really embark on it. So that’s the process we are in right now, trying to find a story that is worthy of everyone’s time and is worthy of the title.
Otherwise, you never want to fall into the mistake of making [a sequel] just because the first one is a big hit … [making a sequel] just because you can make it, that’s always a recipe for disaster.
io9: You’ve done an Evil Dead movie and an Alien movie. Is there another sci-fi or horror franchise you’d be excited to reboot or remake or otherwise bring your talents to?
Alvarez: I don’t know. In the horror world, I don’t think so, because I truly believe if you would have asked me in 1992 or ‘93 what are the crown jewels of horror, I would have said Evil Dead and Alien, no questions asked. For me, just completely subjectively, particularly Alien is the crown jewel of horror. It doesn’t get as as good as that. It is the kind of movie that covers so much ground … the science fiction, the horror, the suspense, and the drama, I think there’s just nothing better than that. But you tell me! I will consider it.
Alien: Romulus is now available to stream on digital as well as on Hulu. The VHS, Blu-ray, and 4K home release is December 3.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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