Annihilation

Today we're looking at the surreal horror movie:

Annihilation (2018).

Directed by Alex Garland who amongst other movies also directed 28 days later, and starring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The movies is based on the novel by the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, which I haven't read so I can't comment on how accurate the movie is to the book.

Natalie Portman plays Lena, an army vet who now works as a cellular biologist. Her husband, Kane is active in the military and is frequently away on mission for long periods of time. As the movie starts, he's been gone for a year and Lena has gotten no information on his whereabouts and so fears him dead. Then he suddenly comes home, but collapses and on their way to the hospital they are grabbed by some agency.

They are brought to a facility near a national park where Lena meets Dr. Ventress (Leigh). She explains to Lena that a meteor hit a lighthouse in the park and a strange zone popped up. From the outside the zone looks like gasoline on water, but as a huge wall instead of a puddle. The zone grows slowly and all efforts to send people inside leads to them disappearing. Kane is the first to return but he is dying. Lena meets an all female team who is set to go inside and she volunteers to go along.

Annihilation is a really strange but very well crafted movie. Most of what happens is unsettling and disturbing, so when the real horror hits, it hits hard! I have often talked about the balance needed between outright horror and other things in order to make a movie really scary. Annihilation navigates this balance extremely well which makes for a truly enjoyable experience.

I have seen this movie listed as a Lovecraftian movie, and this is neither false or true. There are clearly elements of cosmic horror at play, but there is nothing outright Lovecraftian about it. The Cthulhu Mythos is completely absent, so if you are expecting that, adjust your expectations accordingly.

From a technical aspect the movie is truly well made. Actors are great, visuals are amazing, directing is solid and so on. The choice of music is weird though. It works, but might throw you for a bit of a loop.

There are some similarities between Annihilation and Roadside Picnic, better known as STALKER, but VanderMeer swears that this is incidental, and I believe him. Some similarities are unavoidable as both books feature a mysterious zone, but that is about it. By the way, if you haven't read Roadside Picnic, I recommend it. It was really good.

That's about as much as I can tell without going into spoiler territory, but if you haven't figured it out, I liked Annihilation a lot and recommend it to all lovers of weird movies and horror. It's a strange movie that leaves you scratching your head at times, but it is a cleverly done modern horror movie that doesn't rely on dark scenes and shaky cam. Enjoyable from beginning to end.

That is that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have great and safe week!