Ridley Scott’s latest instalment in the Alien series, Alien: Covenant, has big boots to fill. The original 1979 Alien’s chest busting sequence is one of the most iconic horror movie scenes of all time.

Alien: Covenant picks up ten years after Prometheus left off. Cue another mission to another planet. But this time it’s a colony mission — an attempt to find another planet to inhabit. As one does in a horror movie, the audience waits on tenterhooks for things to go awry. And the movie does not disappoint. A few minutes in, a neutrino burst wakes the crew seven years early, and sees the demise of their captain due to an unfortunate cryo pod malfunction. The new captain is lacking in confidence and typically looking to consolidate his authority and win the respect of his crew members. His second in command, Dany, is the grieving widow of the recently deceased captain. Sounds complicated? Yes, deliberately so. Most of the crew is paired up and married, presumably to make it all the more heart-wrenching when they start dropping dead — as characters do in horror movies.

The crew picks up a transmission from a nearby planet. A siren’s song, it lures them away from their destination, Origae-6. The unknown planet seems to display optimal conditions for survival. Seems too good to be true? Because it is. Dany is the only one who speaks out against the change of plans but the crew members rally a number of convincing reasons to abandon a carefully chartered course such as, their duty and the fact that no one wants to go to back into the sleeping pod after the malfunction — never mind the 2000 colonists entrusted in their care.

The next stage of the movie continues in typical horror movie style. Once the crew lands on planet they soon start dying. For those who like their horror movies violent, the death-by-alien-expulsion is horrifyingly gruesome. To make matters worse, the aircraft which could take them back to the main ship blows up. They are now in unfamiliar territory dealing with unfamiliar monsters. Until now Scott had followed the horror movie blueprint, without any twists or turns. Cue the pièce de résistance of the film, David. Or the Michael on Michael performance Fassbender provides as David. Despite the fact that he saves the remaining crew and leads them to safety, there is something off about David, just as there is something not quite right about the whole planet. David’s presence and continually unfolding character is arguably be the most sinister element of the movie.

The audience is lulled into a false sense of complacency that all is well, after the Walter and David fight scene and the dramatic defeat of the aliens. But at the very end of the film, it is revealed that it is not the loyal Walter who made it back to the ship, rather the psychotic creationist David. The film’s chilling conclusion conveniently leaves many questions unanswered, and the door left wide open for the next installment — which may be headed in a completely new direction.