Annihilation

2018 film by Alex Garland, his second movie after Ex Machina.
==First watch (June 2018)==
===Format===
At home
===Journal===
Steve from work found a list of horror movies and recommended this one after watching it. I'd never heard of it, despite loving Ex Machina (and I didn't realise the connection until afterwards).
From what he said it sounded interesting (he kept it vague but was obviously compelled by it). I felt like maybe the science side of it would be awkward, and it kinda was but it wasn't important. The movie is great - visceral, creepy, horrifying, beautiful. It reminds me of Alien in some ways.
===Rating===
2
== Second watch (July 2020) ==
=== Format ===
At home
===Journal===
It stuck in my head after the first watch and I saw it mentioned on reddit a few times, usually praised with commenters lamenting that it flopped at the box office. I heartily agree.
It's so compelling, and beautiful, and chilling. It's not particularly deep, I guess, but it does so much with what little depth it has. Halfway through I was thinking how similar and yet different it was to Alien, without realising I'd made the connection last time too. To be honest, I think this movie is as good as or better than Alien, and deserves to be talked about just as much if you ask me. I love the casual indifference of the alien environment inside The Shimmer, mutating everything in ways that are sometimes more beautiful and sometimes more horrifying, but always a bit of both.
The Red Letter Media review (which was pleasingly extremely positive) pointed out something that rings true to me - it's a film about cancer. There are several references to cancer in the movie, and the themes of mutation and change and annihilation and duplication etc all connect back to cancer.
===Rating===
2
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Category:Science fiction films
Category:Horror films
Category:Films watched in 2018
Category:Films with 2 rating
Category:Films watched in 2020