Alien: Romulus

For this soft reboot of the Alien franchise, while the first thirty seconds or so of the trailer go without music on the soundtrack, opting for a focus on sound effects which emphasizes the emptiness of space, by 0:32 we hear strains of the vocal from “You Are My Lucky Star”, from 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain, leading to a haunting cover version of the track.

While it isn’t critical to understand the context, Alien: Romulus takes places after Alien (1982) but before Aliens (1986), and in the original, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) sings the tune while she gets ready to face the titular creature. As such, long-time fans of the series will no doubt appreciate the extra hit of nostalgia that the track offers.

At 0:40, after the first refrain of the song (drenched in copious, haunting reverb), we get a blaring synthesizer alongside the title card for the release date. From here, a mélange of horror movie sound design maintains intrigue, such as the high-pitched whine of tinnitus at 0:47 or the creepy pitched percussion at 0:47 as the synths continue to emit an occasional blare. “Lucky Star” re-enters at 0:57 for a moment, mid-phrase, only to pull away again as we see alien larvae hatch and fall into what looks like a pool of water.

At 1:50, the soundtrack again fades to focus on the sound design—in this case, the familiar birth of an alien from one the characters’ chest. The high-pitched whine enters again as an accompaniment that amplifies the sense of tension while also ceding most of the acoustic space to the creepy foley—a combination of high and low pitches in a kind of counterpoint between diegetic and non-diegetic sound that serves to maximize the sense of horror.

Notice how at 2:03, as the chest bursts, we hear it quite well, but it occurs offscreen—this could be, of course, to help ensure the trailer is “green band” (rated for viewing by anyone), but it’s also worth noting that it also plays on fear of the unknown—leaving the visual to the imagination.

A synch point at 2:06 between the scream and the resurgence of the soundtrack serves as an effective intro to the montage that follows, focusing on more action sequences with aliens, gunfire, and so on; of course, epic percussion enters the fray at this point, replete with triplets.

The final moments of the trailer focus on the two tones from “You Are My Lucky Star”—in particular, the leading note and tonic (home note) at the word “lucky”. Abstracted away, this half-step relationship sounds distinctively colder. Absent the context of the song, it sounds especially dissonant—and intertextually, it’s ironic seeing as the ship’s crew are particularly unlucky.

As a whole, the use of “You Are My Lucky Star” serves admirably in its purpose of signalling that this instalment in the Alien franchise slots in after the first, but before the second—a soft reboot of sorts. Further, its rearrangement and harmonization serve as an effective base from which to build an overall horror-inflected sonic atmosphere, whether through the soundtrack or through diegetic sounds.

Alien: Romulus arrives in theatres August 16th.

— Curtis Perry