Studio:   Shudder/RLJE Films
Director: Flying Lotus
Writer:   Jonni Remmler
Producer: Nate Bolotin, Matthew Metcalfe
Stars:    Eiza Gonzalez, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott, Beulah Koale, Flying Lotus

Review Score:

Summary:

Waking in a remote space outpost to find the rest of her crew mysteriously massacred, an amnesic astronaut endeavors to uncover what happened.

Synopsis:

Riya Ortiz wakes from unconsciousness in a remote space outpost to discover fellow astronaut Catherine Clarke is missing and the rest of their crew, composed of Captain Adhi, Kevin Overton, and Davis, was violently slaughtered. Brion, who was supposedly in space in an orbital monitor during the event, unexpectedly enters claiming Riya sent a distress call about Clarke attacking everyone after suffering a psychotic break. Haunted by occasional flashes of melting faces and other disturbing images, Riya tells Brion she is missing many memories, including her identity as well as the purpose of their crew’s mission.

Brion suggests Clarke came into contact with a deadly pathogen that possibly infected her. With a system failure having depleted remaining oxygen levels, Brion insists he and Riya must leave the planet, nicknamed Ash, as soon as possible, meaning they don’t have time to investigate the unusual deaths.

Still determined to uncover what really happened, Riya repairs a drone that recorded footage of her crew’s most recent expedition. The footage shows they discovered alien terraforming technology on the planet, which was proof of an intelligent species as well as a positive sign for their colonization research. However, interacting with the technology released a sentient blast of energy that attacked them.

Riya angrily confronts Brion for not telling her the truth about what they were doing on Ash. She also suggests she was the person who killed the other crew members, but she doesn’t know why and she refuses to leave until she finds out. A flashback of her attacking Captain Adhi with scissors additionally reminds Riya that everyone was infected, not just Clarke.

Clarke returns to the outpost. A vicious fight between the two women ends with Riya drowning Clarke in the shower. To Riya’s disappointed surprise, a post-mortem analysis of Clarke’s body reveals nothing abnormal about her condition.

Riya is startled to find Brion’s mangled corpse. A subsequent post-mortem analysis reveals Brion had been dead for 51 hours.

Another encounter with Brion confirms Riya hallucinated their recent interactions, as his imaginary presence was part of the parasitic infection afflicting her. Riya recalls how she was studying an alien organism discovered on the planet. The parasitic creature got loose in her lab, then jumped from host to host as it caused infected crew members to violently attack one another. After the deaths of Davis and Adhi, Riya helped Clarke escape outside while Kevin killed Brion. Riya then killed Kevin, causing the organism to take over her body next.

In Riya’s mind, the alien creature explains it was protecting its planet from her self-destructive species. The organism cryptically says it only needs one of her kind, and Riya has “been chosen to join the many” that will have the privilege of evolving to join their hivemind existence.

Riya puts herself under a medical unit that painfully excises the parasite from her head. The surgery is successful, but the removed creature attaches itself to Brion’s body, mutates into a monster, and attacks Riya. The fight that follows ends when Riya manages to burn the alien to death, although the resulting fire destroys the outpost.

Riya operates a lander that takes her to an orbiting space station. As she approaches, however, the reverse side of the station is shown to be covered by a massive parasitic organism.

Review:

Her name is Riya Ortiz (Eiza Gonzalez), although she doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know where she is either. What Riya does know is she just woke from unconsciousness to find herself surrounded by slaughtered bodies, leaving her alone in a remote outpost on an alien planet with no idea who she is, why she’s there, or what happened.

Foggy memories start flashing frightening visions of melting faces and other horrors in Riya’s mind shortly before Brion (Aaron Paul) shows up. Answering a distress call she supposedly sent, Brion explains how he and Riya both belong to the same exploratory crew of research scientists. Someone on their team seemingly had a psychotic break and went mad, brutally butchering everyone except Riya and Brion, the latter of whom was orbiting in space when the unknown event unfolded.

Brion goes on to say that due to a system failure depleting their oxygen levels, they’ll need to act fast to escape the planet, nicknamed Ash, at their earliest opportunity. Haunted by the fragments flickering in her head, Riya suspects she may be more than an innocent survivor, and she refuses to leave until she solves the mystery of the savage murders. But by doing so, Riya may uncover terrors and truths that threaten to sever an already tenuous grasp on her remaining sanity.

It's hard to make any fantasy setting look realistic on an indie budget. Sci-fi in particular presents unique difficulties, challenging filmmakers to create spaceships, creatures, and exotic locations that appear as seamlessly integrated elements, not cobbled props, costumes, and backdrops MacGyver-ed from off-the-rack thrift purchases and random materials left behind by previous productions.

“Ash’s” midrange production value can’t compete with heavy-hitting studio blockbusters, but it also doesn’t look like a low-grade cheapie that never had a chance of passably recreating outer space in the first place. Landing comfortably in between those two extremes, “Ash” hits the level of B-movie believability that has been a staple of syndicated shows like “Stargate” and essentially the standard for what Syfy Channel audiences are willing to accept for frugal features. In other words, no jaws are going to drop like they’re experiencing the next ILM epic, yet the blend of heavily saturated colors and strategic shadows disguising the set’s small scope makes an immersive mood that sells the otherworldly location as professionally crafted, even though you might catch a clearance sale price tag stuck to an item or two.

Having a harder time getting audiences to escape into the fiction is an uneven, occasionally unconvincing, lead performance from Eiza Gonzalez as Riya. Hers is a tough task for any actor. Fashioned as a lean psychological thriller spiked with several instances of visceral action, “Ash” uses suggestive dread to mold its eerie atmosphere. Since it’s driven by this dreamlike texture rather than by drama or dialogue, the small cast isn’t tasked to do much in the way of emoting. A consequence is the film carries a fair share of silent spaces filled simply by Gonzalez wearing a persistent expression of pained confusion.

With only six total actors, most of whom probably don’t top over two minutes of screen time, “Ash” focuses less on performances and more on animating somewhat trippy visuals. Although they’re limited by the movie’s modest bank balance, the special effects still deliver a cosmic quality that’s alternately reminiscent of Lovecraftian traumas and fascinating fractals. Stubborn dispositions won’t be as forgiving of technical flaws, but there’s an undeniably alluring sheen to the cinematography and editing that’s head and shoulders above other economical sci-fi working under similarly restricted conditions.

Directing only his second feature, Flying Lotus complements unusual imagery with a Carpenter-esque synth score befitting the film’s throwback tone. Speaking of John Carpenter, “Ash” is a little like the horror master’s first full movie “Dark Star” in that “Ash” shows more promise for Flying Lotus’s filmmaking future rather than impressing as an early career highlight to be repeatedly revisited for many years to come. While the presentation can be transfixing, there is a cable TV quality to “Ash” that makes it feel more like an extended episode of “The Outer Limits,” not a successor to “Event Horizon” or a competitor for the next “Alien” project. It is, however, an intermittently compelling calling card for Flying Lotus to have his name in the mix for helming something bigger and better on whatever comes next.

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score: 60