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Like the very first Alien movie back in 1979, Alien: Romulus strips away everything superfluous and does what it's supposed to do.
It's called "a haunted house" plot in the business - essentially meaning you can't get out until you kill the Thing. And the Thing is unkillable.
And, again like the original Alien, writer-director Fede Álvarez, and no doubt executive producer Ridley Scott have chosen to cast young, near-unknowns.
Not entirely unknown though. We've seen them in films like Aftersun, Sicario 2 and Morbius.
Not to mention Cailee Spaney, who's having a brilliant year right now - Priscilla, Civil War and now, playing Rain in Alien: Romulus.
Romulus takes place between the first Alien and its sequel Aliens, set 60-odd years later.
On a bleak, mining-colony planet, Rain is offered the chance to get away. She and a few friends plan to steal an escape-pod from a nearby deserted space-station. What could possibly go wrong?
But when they land on the space-station Romulus, they discover why it's deserted. Something took over, killing everyone and creating havoc. What happened? Unlike us, Rain and her friends don't have the advantage of 40 years of Alien movies to give them a hint.
Among the friends is Rain's best friend and guardian synthetic, Andy.
Synthetics are regular characters in Alien movies, generally designed by the ruthless Weyland Yutani corporation to be science officers on their spaceships.
They're also often morally ambiguous, none more so than Ash in the first film. Which is why it's a shock when the partially damaged Romulus synthetic Root is discovered, looking exactly like Ash.
In fact, Ian Holm doesn't seem to have aged a bit.
Since Sir Ian died some years ago, this is clearly an AI job, to the loud disapproval of many Alien fans thinking this is a digital step too far.
Personally I disagree. Root is a chip off the old block, prepared to not only sacrifice mere humans for business reasons, but to corrupt Rain's innocent synthetic, Andy. Andy's chilling "I have a new prime objective now" is one of the great evil robot lines.
The gripping thing about Alien: Romulus is its tactile credibility. The sets are largely practical, with rusty walls, constantly dripping water and ominous noises getting closer.
And when whatever's in the water makes its first appearance its grip isn't just figurative.
There are just enough added complications to take the audience's eye off the ball before H R Giger's hideous creation springs into action.
After the slightly unfocussed last few Alien films, Romulus has been generally greeted as a terrifying success - give or take an AI character or two. Though that wasn't my reservation.
I did think it went on too long - with one plot twist too many before an otherwise satisfying ending.
An Alien film is strongest when it concentrates on one horrible Thingy in the haunted house - er, space ship. The more aliens - no matter how revolting - the less nerve-wracking in my experience.
But there's no denying that Fede Álvarez has proved just the director to turn Alien: Romulus once more into the scariest thing in space.
He took enough of the classic elements, but then went on to make a movie that pretended not to be part of a franchise. Always the best way.
