Annihilation (2018): Movies and the Mythos.

There are few horror films directly based on an H.P.Lovecraft story but, then again, there are few who have not been influenced by him in some way. From Hellboy to Event Horizon, Lovecraft’s shadow looms large in the realm of horror cinema, and Annihilation is no exception.

Annihilation is one such film. Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s eponymous 2014 novel, it nevertheless bears a lot of similarities to Lovecraft’s short story The Colour out of Space, sharing major plot elements as well as a similar theme and story arc. So, what’s it all about?

When a falling meteor strikes the base of an isolated lighthouse and buries itself beneath, nobody seems to notice. Fast forward a couple of years and that is no longer true. In the meantime a ‘shimmer’, an area of swirling iridescent colour, has expanded to an area of miles around the lighthouse. The government noticed, and sent several special forces units in to check it out, but none returned. Radio signals go in, but do not come out. It’s an impenetrable mystery.

We are introduced to Lena (Natalie Portman), who is grieving the loss of her husband, Kane, one of the soldiers sent into the shimmer to investigate. Life isn’t easy for her, but she persists. When Kane returns home, a year after his departure, he seems a shadow of his former self. And then things go rapidly downhill.

Kane becomes ill and is rushed to hospital. Lena finds out about the shimmer and the government facility at its’ edge. She joins the next mission into the shimmer to seek answers, and that’s when the fun begins (spoiler: the shimmer is not fun).

Without ruining the movie for you, let’s just say that things get pretty weird inside the shimmer, and by the film’s end we get answers to some questions about it. But the film raises just as many questions as it answers, not only about the shimmer, but also about the future of the survivors and of humanity in general.

Cosmic horror concerns itself with the fate of humanity as it exists in a universe that is essentially inimical and incomprehensible to human life. It has at its centre fear: of the unknown, of death, of loss of control, of not knowing. There are a million fears. But in cosmic horror there is only one, primal, fear: fear of the dark (and what it might hide). Lovecraft knew this and used it with great effect. While Annihilation may not be explicitly based on any of Lovecraft’s stories, you can be sure that the man himself would have loved it.

The film is a great watch for any Call of Cthulhu player, and is replete with techniques and tropes ripe for harvesting by an enterprising Keeper: the slow transition from wonder to horror, building suspense, weaponizing ambiguity, morphing the familiar to the unfamiliar, and the gradual increase of ‘creeping horrors’. Recommended.