Few experiences are quite as terrifying as waking up with no idea who or where you are. Even more so when it turns out that the answer to the latter is a derelict space station where everyone else has been viciously murdered. Such is the premise of Ash, the upcoming sci-fi horror feature from director Steven Ellison (aka Flying Lotus) set to arrive in theaters on March 21.
Eiza González (3 Body Problem) stars as Riya, a woman who wakes up aboard a space station where all of her crewmates are dead. To make matters worse, she has no recollection of who she is or the specifics of what her original mission was. When Brion (Aaron Paul), a man from Riya’s past, arrives aboard the station having responded to a distress call, Riya embarks on a trip to the surface of a strange nearby planet in search of answers. Can Brion actually be trusted, and is Riya truly prepared for the answers she’ll find on the planet’s surface?
The visuals look appropriately ominous and psychedelic, with bright throbbing light sources offset by pitch-dark shadows and industrial interiors. Oh, not to mention what looks like a pulsating hellmouth hovering in the sky of the alien planet Riya and Brion land on — can’t forget to mention that. Flying Lotus seems to have really upped his game as a director since his last feature film, Kuso, premiered back in 2017.
Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Night Comes for Us) plays a supporting role as Adhi, one of Riya’s former crewmates, with Flying Lotus himself playing an accompanying cameo role as her crewmate Davis. If the visuals and talent attached alone weren’t exciting enough, it appears that Flying Lotus went ahead and composed the score for Ash himself. I’m excited to see what fresh new hell the film has in store for audiences when it premieres.
