The first image fromAnnihilation, Alex Garland’s follow-up toEx Machina,has been released and it showsNatalie Portmanrubbing a Q-tip on an albino alligator, so I’m sold. (I can just feel someone being like, “Actually, that’s a crocodile.”) You know what this reminds me of? The end of Werner Herzog’s documentary,Cave of Forgotten Dreams,当他继续切白化鳄鱼s and then just ends the movie. I love Werner Herzog. I also love Alex Garland’s directorial debut, Ex Machina, which is as weird and unsettling as Werner Herzog talking about albino alligators.
So it’s right up my alley thatAnnihilationbrings together albino alligators and Alex Garland and that sense of Herzogian weirdness. The movie is based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and it’s about four women who go on a scientific expedition into “Area X”, a quarantined section of the United States where some weird sh*t is happening. The book is described as “eco-horror”—so like,Silent Spring?—and Natalie Portman’s character is looking for her husband, who disappeared on a previous expedition. The husband is played by Oscar Isaac, and the cast also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Ex Machina’s silent dancing robot, Sonoya Mizuno (Araminta Lee inCrazy Rich Asians). There are a lot of reasons to be into this movie is what I’m saying.
Just don’t let that February release date scare you off. Thanks to the success ofDeadpool, and to a lesser extentFifty Shades of GreyandThe LEGO Movie, February is now more attractive box office real estate. (Next year,Black Pantherwill undoubtedly double-down on that belief.) Annihilation could be a Sundance premiere, for instance, and then a platform release that carries it through March.Black Pantheris certain to dominate next February, but a well-managed arthouse release should still be able to find a niche. ButEx Machinawas a sleeper hit in 2015, andAnnihilationhas a big name star in Portman, and also Thompson will be coming offThor: Ragnarok, and it already has distribution in place with Paramount. The box office is REALLY tough right now. Please, don’t get overzealous and set up this weird artsy female-led horror movie up to fail.
