They might not be able to hear you scream in space, but they certainly will in the cinema. Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) takes the helm of the seventh instalment in the Alien franchise, with the horror specialist on a mission to menace as he veers off down the slasher road. An attractive and charismatic young cast are assembled to get picked off one by one.

Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, this ‘interquel’ introduces us to indentured mining colony labourer Rain Carradine (Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny) and her synthetic brother Andy (Rye Lane’s David Jonsson). They join forces with some similarly disenchanted friends, led by Archie Renaux’s Tyler, in a plot to rob some cryo-pods from a decommissioned outpost, pods which will allow them to travel to a less dystopian planet. Once onboard the space station, they face a full-on alien assault from facehuggers, chestbursters and, of course, the xenomorphs.

With its grimy, slimy industrial space chic, Alien: Romulus definitely looks the part. It’s decently directed and ratchets up some nerve-jangling suspense before chaos rains down on the unfortunate crew. Spaeny is a convincingly plucky ‘final girl’, with Jonsson superb in a slippery, shifting role. The xenomorphs themselves are well-rendered in silvery, teeth-gnashingly nasty style. Although practical effects were used where possible, an uncanny recreation of an old favourite does somewhat spoil things.

Unfortunately, the characterisation is predominantly thin, some attention to detail can be sloppy and, save the icky finale, it doesn’t bring much originality to the table. In fact, Romulus leans lazily, sometimes cringingly on the familiar, with one particularly jarring callback proving that pandering to fanboys really is the antithesis of great art.

Alien: Romulus was screened as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival and is in cinemas from Friday 16 August.