Ash Movie Review: Sci-Fi that Smolders

With Ash, Flying Lotus crafts a visually mesmerizing space horror that demands patience before revealing its haunting secrets.

Waking up on a distant planet surrounded by your slaughtered crew with no memory of what happened would be anyone’s worst nightmare but that’s exactly what Riya (Eiza González, Baby Driver) encounters when she regains consciousness on the floor of her outpost. Fragmented visions of a deadly attack arrive in frightening bursts, and as she stumbles around the compound, she finds the bloodied bodies of her team, friends who met a horrific end at the hands of… something.

She’s not alone for long because Brion (Aaron Paul, Dual) arrives, claiming to be another team member stationed at a satellite station within walking distance. However, her lack of recall can’t place him as part of her crew. Putting aside her growing suspicion and trusting him to help her navigate the dangers of the mysterious planet may be her only option, because oxygen is thin and their window to leave the planet is rapidly shrinking. 

The first half of Ash wends its way through Riya’s confusion and increasing paranoia, bringing the viewer along through cryptic clues but offering little in the way of momentum. Rather than presenting a clear progression of Riya reassembling the last three days, the film drip-feeds information via hallucinatory imagery. Most of these visuals streak across the screen as both jump scares and disorienting flashbacks, making it difficult to determine what’s real and what isn’t. When the film finally ramps up about 40 minutes in, Ash unveils genuinely clever twists in Jonni Remmler’s screenplay that recontextualize everything we’ve seen.

Initially restrained by the script’s intentional vagueness, González’s performance evolves alongside the story and becomes part of the director’s visual language. There’s an air of tragic determination in her quest for answers, making her a compelling presence even when the material doesn’t always rise to meet her in the middle. Paul, on the other hand, leans heavily into intensity. Sporting a punk haircut and veering into ultra-serious mode (read: overacting), he occasionally overshadows the delicate tension González creates. He could have taken a cue from González and let the bizarre situation inform his performance rather than shape it.  

For only his second directorial feature, Flying Lotus demonstrates a considerable talent for crafting a dreamlike, nightmarish world. Working with production designer Gui Taccetti, he largely sidesteps typical sci-fi cliches, opting for a sleek and immersive aesthetic without resorting to the usual “grimy future” motifs. Richard Bluck’s cinematography bathes everything in dark neon pinks and purples, pulling viewers deeper into Riya’s distorted reality. Paired with an immersive electronic score from the director himself, this fusion of awe-inspiring sight and deep sound creates a dissonance that keeps audiences off balance. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don’t always trust the material to earn the frights genuinely, so some of the sound design is devoted to manufacturing unnecessarily jarring jump scares. 

Having previously directed a patchy yet well-received segment for the horror anthology V/H/S/99, Flying Lotus now has two visually impressive but narratively jagged works under his belt. Science fiction fans willing to embrace a slower-paced, visually driven experience will find much to appreciate, while those seeking continuous space thrills may grow restless. The director’s decision to let Ash burn brightest in its final act aligns its pieces and players with an accelerating pace and delivers on the suspense creeping around the frame’s edges. Though the twists are not entirely unpredictable, they are executed with style and confidence.

It’s in a final chilling note during the closing credits of Ash that Flying Lotus truly proves himself as a filmmaker with an eye for world-building. His storytelling instincts still need fine-tuning, but his bold visual style is bound to play well on the big screen for audiences eager to see a tactile vision of the future, securing his place as a “Director to Watch.” Overly cryptic storytelling and occasional narrative inertia aside, Ash may not set the genre on fire, but it sure smolders enough to leave a lasting impression.

Ash will be released in US theatres on March 21, 2025.