Ash

Film: Ash

Year: 2025

Director: Flying Lotus

Writer: Jonni Remmler

Starring: Eiza González, Aaron Paul and Iko Uwais

Review:

This was a film that popped onto my radar due to seeing others from our director, Flying Lotus. Earlier this year I saw his film, Kuso. Ash came to the theater that I’m a member of, but due to my newborn, I can’t make it to the theater yet. Now that this is on VOD, I decided to check this out as my 2025 release for the week on the podcast, Journey with a Cinephile. I knew a little about what we’d get here but wanted to come into this one as fresh as possible. I’ve also now given it a rewatch on Shudder.

Synopsis: a woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.

We start this with vivid images that are violent. There are also people blaming someone for what happened. This is where we meet our lead character, Riya (Eiza González). There is blood all over the floor. She finds bodies. There was a massacre here. She then gets into a space suit, leaves the compound. Across a canyon she sees someone mimicking her wave. There’s also this weird, bright and surreal circle of lights above her.

It is from here that we fill in the backstory. Riya puts on a medical circle as she has a migraine. This helps her to remember that she was part of a team terraforming this planet. Adhi (Iko Uwais) is the captain. There’s Clarke (Kate Elliott), Kevin (Beulah Koale) and Davis (Lotus). I get the idea that Riya is a botanist. She is to be the first to step out onto the planet. There’s another member of the team that’s in orbit, Brion (Aaron Paul).

Time is limited here. Something happened that she doesn’t remember but this base is in a critical state. The air outside isn’t fully breathable and causes Riya to hallucinate. Brion shows up to figure out what happened. Communications had ceased. He can’t make sense of what she is telling him. She believes, from her broken memories, that Clarke had a psychotic break, killing everyone. That doesn’t feel right though. Brion tells her they have to leave. They’ll run out of oxygen if they don’t and their window to get on the ship in orbit is small. Riya needs to know what happened here. What she discovers though is more terrifying and her reality isn’t what it seems.

That’s where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start would be that I find it interesting that this was made by Flying Lotus. What I mean here is that this is the most straightforward narrative of the works by him that I’ve seen. Now mind you, he only has 2 features and a short in V/H/S/99. Ozzy’s Dungeon. I’d put that short up there with this for the narrative department. What I’ll credit him for is his ability to mix in the surreal. That adds to the atmosphere for sure.

Now that I’ve set that up, let me delve more into what we’re getting here. This feels like it borrows from other things while doing its own twist on it. The first would be Aliens. What we get here though is a character who is in the thick of it trying to piece together what happened. She is unreliable with her memory. What I love is that we have a logical explanation as to why. That was a good touch, especially since it makes sense why Riya is struggling when things get revealed. I’m trying to be cryptic but how this uses the ‘unreliable narrator’ was good. It didn't feel like a cheat and helps make sense of why she can’t remember as well as to the direction she’s being pushed.

Another film that I see as a comparison would be something like Identity. What I mean here is that this is a murder mystery at heart. Riya has her memories of what happened. She doesn’t trust it though. She knows that something happened. What she recollects gives her an explanation, but there are missing elements. She wants to piece things together before leaving which leads to the discoveries. This pushes her to question it for good reason. I like what they do here. It kept me engaged. Another good aspect here is exploring the nature of reality and how we perceive it. This is a narrative point that fascinates me.

Let me then shift slightly to discuss what helps the atmosphere. The big one is the hostile environment. Oxygen is running low. I get the idea that they could survive, theoretically in the atmosphere of the planet, but it drives them insane. It needs more time. To build on this, you then have elements of cosmic horror and the unknown. Riya doesn’t understand what she is missing early on in her memories. There is just this massacre and that is terrifying. Now something I found interesting is that we get point of view shots, which I read was influenced by games like Dead Space, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The survival horror elements are strong for sure.

What helps here is the acting performances. González is solid as our lead. What I like there is that we get introduced to her and since she is confused, we are. That is set up well with flashing these early images that have vivid colors and violence. I thought that sets things up well. Plus, she is attractive which never hurts. She is surrounded by a solid cast of Paul, Uwais, Elliott, Koala and Lotus. What is good there is that we get elements of each and then as more gets revealed, it explains more. I also like how their roles change with that. The acting was good across the board, pushing Riya to where she ended up.

All that is left then is filmmaking. I’ve already said that I love the surreal feel. That helps ramp up the tension as well as the cosmic horror, which I’m a big fan of. Having this set on a foreign planet helps, since you can’t just easily get away. The air is also slowly driving our lead insane. The visuals are great thanks to the cinematography and the framing. They do good things there. Moving then over to the effects. The practical ones are good. This goes brutally there. CGI doesn’t look as good, but this second time around it didn’t bother me as much. There isn’t an easy way to do what they need without them. Other than that, the soundtrack and design help to raise tension. That fit was needed as well.

In conclusion, this proved to be a more compelling experience on a second viewing. Flying Lotus delivers a surprisingly cohesive narrative, while still incorporating his signature surreal elements that enhance the unsettling atmosphere. The film cleverly uses an unreliable narrator to drive its murder mystery plot, keeping the audience engaged and constantly questioning reality. Bolstered by strong performances and effective filmmaking, especially the practical effects and atmospheric design, Ash is a solid recommendation for fans of sci-fi, horror and cosmic horror who appreciate a film that delves into the psychological impact of a hostile alien environment.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10