Ash fell onto the scene this month with a wide theatrical release, and there is a good reason to seek it out. A directorial debut by the man they call Flying Lotus, or FlyLo for short, this film takes place on a vessel on another planet. It is told from the perspective of Riya (Eiza González), who awakens to find all of her crew dead and no memory of herself or what happened. Slowly, as she explores her surroundings on an unfamiliar planet, memories slowly start slipping back to her. When a man named Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives with plans to rescue her, she must piece together her fractured memories to decide if she should trust him.
This film is atmospheric, sultry, and just straight up fun. It layers its genre and style, packing in elements of sci-fi, horror, thriller, drama, and mystery into a tight 95 minutes. Flying Lotus is clearly a creative guy, maximizing his smaller budget to completely knock this film out of the park visually. The planet design, the space vessel design, and the body horror are absolutely fantastic, giving us the perfect blend of Alien and Lovecraft.
It always amazes me how smaller budget movies can nail set design and visuals like this when big budget blockbusters often struggle with the same aspects. The color grading in this film was especially unique, giving it the look of a much more visually striking '80s space film. It was also incredibly intense. The steady build-up of dread was punched up to a fever pitch by the atmosphere and the sound design, really making the third act hit like a truck.
Ash isn't without its flaws, though. The pacing and story structure do get gummed up along the way. Telling a story backwards through a character with memory loss is a tough undertaking. I felt there were too many back-and-forth jumps, and the narrative could’ve been smoother with fewer switches between the two timelines. Additionally, there was a lot of untapped potential in character development. While the film really fleshed out our main character, and González did plenty of heavy lifting, we really were left in the dark about many of the other crew members. Learning more about their personalities and intentions would have significantly enhanced the emotional impact in the latter part of the film.
In a world where the general audience is sick of retreads and reboots, we have gems of original horror and sci-fi that constantly get overlooked, and Ash is a perfect example. This is a fun and creative swing that could easily become a cult classic down the line. If you enjoy that nostalgic mix of cosmic space horror in the vein of classics such as The Thing or Alien, you should absolutely give this movie a try. I can't wait to see what Flying Lotus tackles next. With his eye for stunning visuals and his ability to masterfully mix styles to create something unique, he will be a director to keep tabs on moving forward. Ash is still out in theaters around the country and will hit streaming later on Shudder.