Annihilation (2018) - What Is Going On in the Shimmer?

The Untitled Roulette has sent Rob and Tom into the Shimmer for Alex Garland's Annihilation (2018). Beautiful scenery, fucked-up wildlife and a bear that absolutely nobody wants to meet. We both enjoyed it. Naturally, we spend most of the review picking it apart.

There's a shit-ending debate before we've even explained the plot, so Rob attempts another very quick, very dirty rundown. Natalie Portman heads into a mysterious expanding zone to find out what happened to her husband, Oscar Isaac. Plants are becoming people, animals are borrowing bits of other animals, and apparently DNA works like light through a prism. Which raises the obvious question: how exactly are we emitting all this DNA? The answer gets exactly as stupid as you'd expect.

We get into the lighthouse, the suspiciously well-charged camcorder, the T-1000 tribute act and whether the person who comes back is actually the person who went in. There's a missing six days nobody can account for, some very relaxed quarantine procedures, and Gemma's entirely reasonable question about why the next expedition hasn't been given any fucking protective equipment. The more we try to explain the ending, the less sure we are what happened. This is going well.

But the art and sound design? Absolutely haunting. We talk mutated crocodiles, the soldier in the swimming pool and, finally, the bear. The horrible, screaming, skull-faced bear. Best character in the film. Worst thing to hear coming down the hallway. There are Nope comparisons, competing alien theories and the realisation that we might have to read a book to settle any of this.

Before all that, we've been to Blackpool for a nerdy boys' weekend at Retro Replay Play Expo. Arcade machines, pinball, original consoles and an alarming amount of Counter-Strike 1.6. The Norbreck gets its own review: the plywood wing, three rooms apparently allocated by Goldilocks, a window frame threatening to leave the building and beer that makes Carling look ambitious. Would we stay again? Somehow, yes.

The Roulette spins again, and this time there's considerably less reluctance about the next film. You'll have to listen to find out what it is.

Final spoiler warning: we discuss the whole of Annihilation, including the ending. If you hear someone screaming for help, maybe don't open the fucking door.



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