Life

There are more than a few nods to Alien in this sci-fi horror set aboard a space station where Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson are part of the crew, fighting for their lives after a single-celled organism from Mars rapidly mutates into a bloodsucking face-hugger. Director Daniel Espinosa and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick make bold choices about the order in which characters are dispatched, otherwise they follow a standard genre formula. At first, the creature is only amusingly dangerous, resembling a slippery Marigold glove that gives an almost fatally firm handshake. But, taking cues from Ridley Scott's 1979 classic, it is also visualised as a red dot moving across a digital display and eventually morphs into something quite horrifying. Rather than building steadily like Scott's film, tension comes in fits and starts between visceral action and Espinosa is at his most inspired with haunting images like blood splattering in slow-motion. A fine cast of actors don't have much to sink their teeth into, but this is pure and simple popcorn fare - for those with strong stomachs.