Are We the Bad Guys? Alex Garland Takes Eco Horror In a New Direction with Annihilation

Those of a certain age might remember Alex Garland from The Beach and 28 Days Later. Since then he’s been on a sci-fi/horror hot streak with Ex Machina, Annihilation and his most recent film ‘Men’.

Despite the star power of Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac and Tessa Thompson, Annihilation was a commercial flop, flying under the radar with a limited release in cinemas. It’s now a cult favourite, with fans attesting that it follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, with echoes of 2001, Blade Runner, Alien and Under the Skin.

Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, the story follows a group of explorers who enter The Shimmer, a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence.

Internet sleuths have unearthed one theory – that the film is a metaphor for cancer. The area of The Shimmer is continually expanding, as cancer metastasises, causing mutations to all the organisms/cells it touches. The characters experience various stages of grief – denial, anger, acceptance. 

This theory holds water, but I’d argue the metaphor isn’t about people having cancer, but the concept of the entire Earth having cancer – and we’re causing it. Just as whatever started The Shimmer arrived on a meteor, the very first single celled organism that led to humans likely arrived in the same way. We have already colonised Earth, polluted and distorted nature. This horror has already unfolded. 

While the characters are understandably afraid of the existential threat of this alien presence – the question of ‘what does it want’ is irrelevant. Like cancer, these mutations (or sped up evolution) are indiscriminate – there is no conscious malevolence, good or evil intent. It’s a natural process that threatens other life forms – just as humans have.

Some of the science is vague and lots of unanswered questions remain, but it’s clearly well researched and Garland again recruited the input of Dr Adam Rutherford. Without giving too much away, he expands on some of the ideas in the film in this excellent interview with Lex Fridman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU-mkuMU428

While most eco horror films take the side of humans, Annihilation almost seems to say, ‘maybe it’s time to give someone else a go – they might do a better job!’ It’s an attitude Garland took in Ex Machina, where our empathy was perhaps directed towards the machine rather than the man. Maybe the real horror here is that our annihilation would actually be a good thing for the planet. Now all we need is a mash up of Ex Machina and Annihilation, where the AI comes to that very conclusion. (I think this is already an Isaac Asimov story..)

Anyway, as Lena says: ‘It wasn’t destroying. It was changing everything. It was making something new.’ Exactly what an alien would say…