Ash (2025) - Movie Review
What if I told you that I liked a movie, but I hated the narrative?
Yeah, a mindbender for sure.
Let’s discuss.
ASH is a 2025 sci-fi thriller brought to us by the brilliant mind of director/composer Flying Lotus and writer Jonni Remler. If you don’t know Flying Lotus, you really should check out his award-winning music. You may have heard his work both as a voice actor and composer in the 2021 mini-series Yasuke, or his directing work in the Ozzy’s Dungeon segment of 2022’s V/H/S/99. I truly believe he’s the total package and will be a major name in the horror scene for many years to come. As for Jonni Remler, I’m not familiar with his work, as it appears to be on German television mostly. If he wrote this movie, I don’t have a lot of hope for his English-language film career.
ASH is a sci-fi thriller in the vein of such movies as the underrated 2009 gem, Pandorum, or the 1997 classic Event Horizon. Which are both movies in a genre of sci-fi that began with 1959’s Angry Red Planet, a film my mother requested on MonsterVision so many times, Joebob called her out live on the error for her terrible taste in movies. Joe Bob hated the 1959 film, and I have a feeling he wouldn’t be too hot on this one either.
The film focuses on Riya, a genius botanist and member of an exploratory mission to a planet that could possibly support human life. As the Earth’s atmosphere is becoming more toxic day by day, their mission is the world’s governments’ priority. Riya’s team is made up of a multi-national group of experts in multiple fields of study. However, something happened to derail their mission, something horrible. Riya wakes up to find her crew members dead or missing. Worse yet, their base has hull breaches, causing the majority of the oxygen to vent. Riya can only remember flashes of the events leading up to her breakout, but can she believe her memories? Is the mission she was sent on actually for the betterment of mankind? Is anything she sees, hears, or feels real? Find out in tonight’s feature, ASH.
That summary sucks, but I didn’t have much to go on. The narrative of this film bounces back and forth from the basic premise of Pandorum (Protagonist amnesia / Catastrophe due to foul play) and 1979’s Alien (crew annihilation due to infection), while trying to evoke the dreamlike aura of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it falls flat on all three attempts.
The production design, although derivative of Alien’s interiors, is still novel and well done for a low-budget film. The use of color in the different scenes is a fantastic, Argento-inspired touch that really makes the film feel better than it is, and helps the audience empathize with the lead character. Recreational areas of the ship are brightly colored, like the cafeteria is brightly lit with oranges and yellows, and the lounge area is calming pinks and purples. In stark contrast, the lab and work areas are utilitarian colors of grey, black, and brown. It’s a classic, tried-and-true method of pulling in a viewer and emphasizing what you want them to feel without needing the actors to do all that much.
The actors kind of ruin the film.
It pains me to say it, but with a script this barebones and a concept that is so obviously an amalgam of better films, the actors didn’t have a chance here. All of the dialogue feels forced, and I have a hard time believing Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul were even in the same room for the majority of their dialogue scenes. I don’t know if that’s due to COVID restrictions, or if Paul was busy shooting something else, but the distance kept and the jagged editing of their scenes is a brutal watch. Even my 75-year-old father, who normally doesn’t notice those things, complained about the whiplash. That’s not to say the actors didn’t try, but there just wasn’t chemistry. As the film is presented in a Nolan-esque, out-of-sequence manner, you don’t get any introduction to the characters or their mission. There’s no suspense. By the time we actually see the character’s face, we know they’re all dead. If this movie were cut linearly, I think it might have improved the experience, as the first 40 minutes of the film drag to an uncomfortable degree due to a lack of emotional investment. What really sucks is that this film has some of my favorite character actors. I will watch any film or television show involving Iko Uwais and I have. The Raid 2 is in my top 5 movies all-time. He is an incredible, physical performer and incredibly likable. In the same way, I love Eiza Gonzalez. She’s one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen, and she was fantastic in Netflix’s From Dusk till Dawn television series that ran from 2014 to 2016. Is she a great actress? No, but she’s definitely better than a lot of actors in the movies I watch for this site. However, I do not think she was equipped to be the lead of this film. She is best in supporting roles, like her fantastic turn in 2017’s Baby Driver. She really stole the show playing off John Hamm and Jamie Foxx. I think she was miscast here. The range of emotions she’s supposed to convey doesn’t come through, but as I said before, the script let everybody down here.
The saving grace that kept me watching was the incredible musical score.
Flying Lotus is a brilliant, visionary musician, and the score of this movie is a testament to that. It’s one of the best scores I’ve listened to in a film since Carpenter Brut’s 2019 masterwork on Blood Machines. It’s an incredible instrumental, electronic, synthwave soundscape that really makes the film worth sticking around for. I’d encourage you to listen to it on Spotify, as it’s a fantastic standalone LP.
That’s not the only positive of the film, though, far from it. The cinematography by the criminally underrated Richard Bluck is impeccable. The man’s career has mostly been in the crew, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that every film he works on, the visuals are crisp, perfectly lit, and shot with incredible poise.
The SFX teams did an impeccable job, as to be expected when Neill Blomkamp is your executive producer.
Both the practical and digital effects were top-notch and well above what I would have expected for a film of this scale. Incredibly, this Shudder exclusive has special effects that blow something like Amazon Prime’s recent War of the Worlds film out of the water, and I guarantee you that the Amazon production cost doubles if not quadruples ASH’s budget. McGregor Allen’s monster effects are just as impressive as always, and I was really impressed with the work of Jacob Leaf and team on the CGI effects, as they were gorgeously executed.
It sounds like a slight, but I mean it as a compliment. The technical aspects of this film are beyond impressive, and everyone involved should be proud of their accomplishments. If only it had been a silent film, it would have been much improved.
If you want to check this one out to support indie filmmakers like Mr. Lotus, here’s what I recommend.
Mute the film sound and sync your watch time to the soundtrack on Spotify.
It’s a much better experience, especially in a haze.
It can be found streaming on Shudder/AMC+.
