‘Alien: Romulus’ director Fede Alvarez discusses his passion for film

“Alien: Romulus” took the film world by storm this past August with massive success. The thriller is the seventh installation in the “Alien” franchise, fitting in between the events of “Alien (1979)” and “Aliens (1986).” 

The newest installment is now available to stream on Hulu and other services.

CALÓ News had the opportunity to speak with the director Fede Alvarez to discuss what drives him in the film world and his inspiration for horror films like his own.

Alvarez is very passionate about what he does. Born and raised in Uruguay, he had to fight harder for his place in the film industry. “Particularly, being born in Uruguay, not knowing anybody in Hollywood and having no connections, anything,” Alvarez said.  “My mother staying at home and my dad being a teacher, I had no connections or any means to get there. The only way really what made me get here was to be convinced I was never gonna get here. You know what I mean? It was the energy you put in it because you love it so much and you want to do the best work you can because you love it.” 

If he could advise his younger self, Alvarez said he wouldn’t tell himself a thing and just go through the motions as it built him to be exactly where he is. If he allowed himself to become complacent he knows he wouldn’t be where he is now. “But I think it's good sometimes to be under the impression that it is hopeless because you'll put so much effort into it just for the tiny, tiny chance and maybe someone will see your work,: Alvarez said.  “I probably won't tell myself anything because even if I knew that it was, ‘hey, you're going right,’ like that maybe I'll relax, I will work less, I will be like, ‘oh, it's gonna be fine.’ So I got to, you know, sleep a little bit longer or I might not do this particular project.”

His advice to those seeking a similar path is to always keep in mind the bigger picture; focusing on just working on movies keeps one’s mind open to all opportunities. “It's truly about putting all the effort into the work and that's all. You have to never think about final big, big goals, you have to just think about ‘what's the story I want to tell that I cannot help but tell it.’ Then go and shoot it and go and make it a final and direct film. You know, take a camera, tell the story with a camera,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez grew up with VHS being the best way to consume film aside from going to the cinema but felt as though many films in cinema didn’t seem to find their audience until it was available to watch from home.

“VHS was a medium where movies that sometimes didn't work so well in cinemas ended up finding the audience on VHS,” Alvarez said. “So there are big classic movies like ‘Labyrinth,’ you know, stuff like that, that famously did terribly at theaters, but they found their audience on VHS. There's a lot of genre stuff that was amazing at the time, you know, that was produced in the 80s, that somehow were too experimental, weird for the masses and theaters, but found their audience in VHS. 

The phenomenon of films being in their prime post their theatrical release was one of the bigger inspirations for Alvarez's films. His love for VHS is deep and he plans on releasing “Alien: Romulus” on VHS as well in the coming weeks. 

“Alien: Romulus” is available to stream now.