Annihilation (2018)

For enhanced effect I "recommend" watching "Annihilation" in the same conditions as I did = with a strong cold + the accompanying headache, at a room temperature of over 25 degrees Celsius, at night, and with mosquitoes humming around you (take note of the quotes before trying this). In this context, at some point I was wondering if I also have a fever or the movie is as surreal as it looks like. Fortunately I think it's the second...

"The shimmer" is a sort of mist with a slow but certain expansion rate, which started from a lighthouse on the USA shore and threatens to cover everything sooner or later. To make it more concerning all teams sent in by the US government did not return. With one exception. Sergeant Kane, who appears back home from nowhere after being missing for one full year. It doesn't take long to be taken back by the military along his wife, Lena, a biologist. And since she seems in danger to become a widow (= the sergeant collapses), she joins a group of other 4 volunteers forming the next team to be sent in. From here onwards...

... We have something that struck me as being very similar to Stalker". "The shimmer" is a sort of the "the zone". However, we don't have the cinematography we had in Tarkovski's movie decades ago, and neither the finesse of the enigmatic tension we had there. What we have here is the consistent dose of question marks in the end and probably we also have plenty of symbolism thrown around, but I didn't have the necessary state of mind to notice it + Hollywood's style requires mutant monsters on screen. There's still work to do it seems until the majority of directors/producers from U.S. to get that "what's not seen is more scary than what's seen", of if this is known to figure out how could you get it on screen.

Rating: 3 out of 5