Annihilation is a 2018 US/UK psychological science fiction horror film, written and directed by Alex Garland, and based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer.

The film stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac, and follows a group of military scientists who enter “The Shimmer”, a mysterious quarantined zone full of mutating landscapes and creatures.

I had a go at reading the book as it was a Sword & Laser pick in  January 2015. I didn’t get far and gave up.

The movie is notable as being one of the first Netflix movies and the first streaming movie review by  Mark Kermode on his film review show.

The movie is a slow moving and dream-like. It’s more horror than science fiction. While there is a sense of realism in the science, it does descent into strangeness at the end.

Initially I saw it on TV, but gave up halfway through. As netflix saves the last position, I could come back the next day and finish it on my PC.

Not a genre I like, so I’m not as enthusiastic about it as Mark Kermode was. (3/5).