Ash Review: Flying Lotus Casts Stunning Eiza González in a Familiar But Visually Stylish Sci-Fi Horror
Ash begins with an attention-grabbing opening scene: A young woman finds herself waking up on the floor in a room of a space station. The woman in question is Riya Ortiz, played by Eiza González, looking bloodied and confused because she has no recollection of what’s going on. The room is bathed in a dark, moody blue lighting while the station’s computer voice issues warnings about “abnormal activity detected”, “system failure”, and “security system breach”.
Equipped with a flashlight, she walks out of the room and checks every dark corridor. Blood is all over the place, and there are dead bodies. Even after the power is turned on, the station remains eerie with all the red lights illuminating the interior, and to make things worse, the oxygen level is depleting. No doubt, Flying Lotus a.k.a Steven Ellison, who’s in charge of multiple duties behind the scenes, gets off to a promising start while effectively establishing the style and tone of a space-horror genre. His prior directing credits include helming Kuso and the “Ozzy’s Dungeon” segment of V/H/S/99.
Working from Jonni Remmler’s screenplay, Lotus approaches his movie in a deliberate pace as Riya tries to make sense of everything. Her memory consists of fragmented images, but the story does given us the obligatory flashback as we learn she is part of the crew on a space mission including the captain Said Adhi (Iko Uwais), Kevin Overton (Beulah Koale), Catherine Clarke (Kate Elliott) and Davis (Flying Lotus himself). And now, her crew members are dead, and she is left alone, stranded in space.
Ash may lack a substantial studio budget, but even with limited resources, Lotus manages to pull off surrealistic visuals of red and blue, coupled with Richard Bluck’s atmospheric cinematography. Lotus even composed the music here, offering an eclectic score that evokes an ominous sense of dread. As the story progresses, it doesn’t take long before another character is introduced. It was a guy named Brion (Aaron Paul) who arrived at the station in a spacesuit. Not surprisingly, Riya is sceptical about his presence. Is he a good guy or simply someone manipulative who could be responsible for the murder of Riya’s crew?
Well, the movie doesn’t offer anything new or subversive, especially if you are familiar with the space-horror genre. Obvious inspirations from Event Horizon to, of course, the seminal Alien can be seen throughout the movie. The underlying mystery is fairly intriguing, except it takes a long while to get to the point, despite its shorter 95-minute length. The movie tends to meander around, particularly in the sluggish midsection.
Eiza González is no Sigourney Weaver, but she’s adequate enough to play the dramatic role of a baffled sole survivor. I also can’t help but find her supermodel-like look with well-defined cheekbones and mesmerising eyes a bonus as eye candy. How else can you explain her appearance being dolled up as appealing as possible in the utmost form-fitting clothes? The movie also relies heavily on the two-hander seen in González and Paul’s interactions and how they see things differently. This is especially true with Riya is more eager to find out the truth about what caused her crew dead in the first place, while Brion wants to depart the planet as soon as possible.
The special effects, particularly the gore, are sufficient for an indie feature. Iko Uwais may have appeared in a small role, but at least Lotus doesn’t waste his presence since the Indonesian martial arts star gets to strut his impressive fighting skills at one point in the movie. However, the climactic third act is somewhat short-lived. Viewing this as a straightforward genre exercise, Ash has plenty to offer here for a movie that doesn’t have the Hollywood-sized budget.
