Review of Annihilation (2018) by William S — 08 Mar 2018

Annihilation is many things. Beautiful. Otherworldly. Unsettling. Terrifying. Bizarre. Any many more. But above all it is brilliant. As horror, action thriller, high concept sci-fi and deeply introspective psychological study it works on every level. It's not a movie for the casual filmgoer, or one that is easy to wrap your head around. But for experienced viewers prepared to have their minds blown, Annihilation is a real treat.

The premise is that Natalie Portman is Lena, a biologist who has lost her husband and travels into an area of altered reality called "the Shimmer" to learn what happened to him. No one knows to expect when they go in, because only one barely conscious person has ever returned. But nothing could prepare them- or the viewer- for what they find inside.

They're on Earth. There are touches of the familiar all around. Abandoned shacks, bayous, alligators. But at the same time the inside of the Shimmer is in many ways a beautiful and alien as Pandora. It's not often you feel compelled to comment on the vegetation in a movie, but the flowers and trees they encounter are simply gorgeous, filling the screen will a whirl of colors completely at odds with the film's tone. The creatures on the other hand are pure nightmare fuel. They're recognizable animals but twisted in horrifying ways that hint at the deeper corruption all around them.

Most of the best horror movies work because they stand as a metaphor for our deepest and most common fears. Alien was Rape. The Babadook stood for overwhelming grief. And Annihilation is about guilt, paranoia, and utter mental and emotional breakdown. It's fascinating and more than a little unsettling to watch how each of the main characters slowly become unhinged as they try and fail to come to terms with what they're experiencing. Some display an ever-growing sense of fatalism. Others flat out denial, or overpowering suspicion. In a movie where so much is utterly alien, their breakdowns are surprisingly realistic and nuanced. This could have worked solely as a psychological horror film.

But of course the filmmakers weren't content to stop there. There's extremely frightening imagery and bits of gore, used sparingly enough to retain their full impact. The found footage from a previous expedition is literally stomach churning and will probably be too much for many viewers. There are even good jump scares. And oh, how the movie can build suspense. As they go deeper into the Shimmer the tension builds and builds and is held so long as to be almost unbearable.

And the ending is simply beyond anything most viewers have ever seen. There are no words to adequately describe it, and to even try would spoil it. Suffice it to say that you will be in a state of utter wonder and bewilderment. There are many things about it I don't understand. But then they're probably not meant to be understood, or even possible to understand. The final act of this movie is Akira level mind-bending. It makes 2001 or Inception look simple and unambiguous.

I have my own interpretations of some parts, which I think are what filmmakers intended. But for so many aspects there are no firm answers, only endless possibilities and the questions they create. And that may be the true genius of this movie. For all the terror, the wonder, and the wonderful acting, perhaps what Annihilation succeeds at the most is how much it will make you think.