Otherworldly Sci-fi Horror Ash (SXSW) Prioritizes Style Over Substance and Story
Title: Ash
First Non-Festival Release: March 19, 2025 (Theatrical Release)
Director: Flying Lotus
Writer: Jonni Remmler
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Starring: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2025.
Riya (Eiza Gonzalez) wakes up alone in a space station with dead bodies all around her and system warnings blaring over the loudspeakers. With her memory mysteriously gone, she begins to piece together what happened. Along the way, she is joined by fellow crew member Brion (Aaron Paul), who flew down from their mothership to assess what happened during their blackout. Together they work to retrieve whatever they can and make it out alive before whatever massacred the crew comes back for them.
The aimless story and flat characters of Ash are saved by beautiful cinematography and set design that brings the sci-fi horror to life.
A dizzying journey in deciphering her situation, Riya’s gradual realization of what happened makes for both an uninteresting mystery and foray into questionable movie logic. Much of Ash operates on simple direction. Riya wakes up and doesn’t know why her friends are dead, Brion enters the spacecraft oblivious to the action too, and they work together to leave. The conflict arises from their differences on examining the situation, and it feels stale at best. The push and pull flatlines when it should simmer with tension between the two, both working on separate but seemingly meandering tasks to fill the time before departing on their perfectly timed escape launch to their other ship. Not quite a slow burn, but a sleepwalk through Riya’s most haunting daydream, Ash never quite handles either character’s secrets well, causing the reveals to feel unearned.
It’s not until the third act that Ash finally gets into gear, delivering solid action and a coherent storyline. Taking its sweet time to get to anything outside typical outer space horror tropes, the story gets more engaging once its cards are revealed after a string of increasingly intrusive and obvious flashbacks. While not subversive in its material, the openness of its third act at least allows for Ash to eke out some great fight sequences and visual and special effects. In the end, its decision to interlace and, in the end, fully explain and show the events from before feels cheap and convenient. It’s not just the story itself that’s lacking; it’s the bizarre structure that Ash commits to that takes away from its beauty and scares.
Far from the fault of Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul, the characters of Ash fail to make an impression. With the excuse of amnesia or distance, neither character feels fully realized. The air of suspicion that hangs over Riya and Brion doesn’t arouse intrigue as much as it clouds the narrative. Neither character knows who they are or what’s happening, so why should we? Of course, as Ash presses on, it’s clearer that this is a feature and not a bug, but the third act hardly saves either of them. There’s effort from Gonzalez and Paul but their performances still fall flat, despite their push against the increasingly insurmountable odds.
What truly saves Ash is its incredible design elements that make all parts of the film shine, except its story. The world behind its dazzling planet is equal parts tactile, realistic, and spellbinding. It’s clear how much effort went into the set design that it truly looks like it was filmed in some far-off galaxy. Stylishly filmed with an emphasize on bright, other-worldly colors, Ash barrages the audience with flashes of action and smoke to further obscure the mystery behind Riya’s survival. Much like a video game, the quick-cuts, POV shots, and emphasis on action in its third act all disorient the viewer while simultaneously keeping them invested in what little story is left.
Truly confounding in his ability to elevate such a poorly written story to being a slightly effective and beautifully imagined sci-fi horror film, director Flying Lotus deserves props for making magic happen. Ash is by all counts a derivative and empty alien attack film that relies on a jumbled narrative to inject a sense of mystery in its otherwise straightforward plot. Gonzalez’s and Paul’s performances are fine enough but more is needed to bring their paper-thin characters to life. Still, Ash is dazzling in its realization. Beautiful cinematography, immersive set design, and gnarly special effects work elevate Ash just enough beyond mediocrity for hardcore sci-fi horror fans to enjoy. If that isn’t [understandably] enough for you, Ash will likely burn up on entry rather quickly. This review is likely far too generous, but the reviewer cannot help but feel love for the deep space subgenre of sci-fi horror.
Overall Score? 6/10
