Annihilation

Vanished into havoc. Unfathomable mind. Now beacon, now sea. There is so much to say about this movie but also few words that could convey the right impression.  Let’s just start with the visuals. Absolutely stunning, hypnotic, devouring. From the moment we enter the shimmer, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the screen. The colors, the overgrowth, the unknowingness. Everything that I love in a movie.  I really enjoy how this movie is split into two parts of one being discovery/research and the other being completely inexplicable. When Kane first returns to Lena, I found myself laughing with disbelief over how much he “didn’t know” regarding where he was, how he got home, etc. Yet, after finishing the movie, it truly feels like that’s all you can say.  The amount of foreshadowing in the beginning makes the rewatch of this so much fun. The lecture, the glass water, the looming that comes with Lena’s interrogation.  There’s so many things about this movie that unnerved me in ways I haven’t felt watching a movie before. Such as the sound track. Especially in the final sequences, the score is diabolical. It’s beautiful but also sounds like the musical equivalent of drowning. That matched with the paired movements of [REDACTED] was nauseating in the best way possible. One of my favorite parts of the whole movie was the design of the bear. The idea that in Sheppard’s final moments, her fear became part of the bear, and her cry’s became its own. The three layers of her “help me” had me thrilled. 1. Sheppard crying out for help. 2. The bear using it to lure out the group. 3. The bear seemingly pleading for help with Sheppards own words as it bleeds to death.  Absolute cinema.