If you look at the side of the bear, you'll actually notice a human skull protruding out near the eye. Such a classically horrifying scene! At first I thought the bear creature was using aggressive mimicry: a tactic in which some predators emit a familiar sound to lure prey. This movie is so underrated!
"It's definitely gonna be a bear..." HAHA, JUST YOU WAIT. Seriously, this movie is like nothing else. The dance between her and the alien at the end was always so beautiful to me but I guess people think it's terrifying. I love when alien encounters feel truly alien and almost inexplicable. The bear scene is what's truly horrifying, both for the women and the bear. (My interpretation is that the bear isn't just mimicking her voice, it absorbed part of her consciousness or emotions so she/her suffering have literally become part of it.)
What I love about this movie is how "alien" the alien itself really is. Mostly talking about the entity we see at the end, this weird floating living cloud with light. Something that is hard to describe until it decides to form itself into a moving shape we recognize. And I love the idea that there is no clear motivation, no big aggressive attack on humanity. It just "does things". Some of it's creations are even beautiful or interesting, others are horrific and gruesome, but that's because we look at it from a human perspective. We are mentally trained to understand certain things are not right and disturbing when we see them. I know the movie also has a message about self destruction and you can see a "cancer that is growing" analogy for the shimmer. But I just love that the writer of the novel and this film crew tries to get closer to something truly alien for us to encounter. A design for a living entity that is not designed based on things from earth, like an combination of animals as a monster or a grey skinned man with big black eyes. The music was really good for the atmosphere too, very otherworldly, kinda of scary and uneasy feeling. This movie kind of lingered in my mind for a bit afterwards.
“Uneasy” is the correct word to describe how I felt. Even with the human plants that seem to have the same root system, yet is growing a multitude of different plants.
I remember watching the Lighthouse scene and thinking to myself "the alien is facing away from her, how does it know what movements to copy if it can't see her?" Before realizing that.... it's an alien. Why would it need direct line of sight with what we consider eyes? The line "I don't know what it wants.... or _if_ it wants..." stuck with me.
it's even more disturbing when you see its concept art. It's not really visible in the film cause of the shadows but there is a screaming human skull fused into the side of the bear's head.
It’s such a horrifying concept: Just….a place where any and all life/DNA merges and morphs into new forms. For that one guy, he merged with mold/fungus and they found him in the drained pool. For tons of others they became plants in the shape of their past selves For Shepherd, her vocal chords as she was screaming and being killed by a bear partially merged with the bear to create a creature capable of reproducing her dying screams For Ventress, she went to the epicenter and became the primordial formless essence of all forms of life, the refraction itself For Lena, she gave the primordial essence the human form from her blood and by doing so gave it the human instinct to self destruct, which was why the alien accepted its destruction at the end.
I’m glad you appreciate this movie because it’s one of my absolute favorites. Alex Garland is great and I’m excited for his new film coming out in a few months.
Another fantastic Alex Garland sci-fi movie is "Ex Machina" which also stars Oscar Isaac. Completely different from this movie, but equally entertaining and thought-provoking.
Did you see Lena’s eyes when the non-Kane asked her, “Are you Lena?” I think the color of her eyes was telling us no, she’s not. Then the 2 non humans embraced. That’s what I got out of it. 🤷♂️
Did you notice the "tree-deer" moving in mirrored motion just like Lena and the alien were later? One is significantly more broken, but they're both clearly mutated copies. It's like a copy of a copy of a copy - each one getting more garbled and corrupted. At what point were any of the film's characters their original selves once they went into the Shimmer?
If we ever run into aliens it’s going to be some weird incomprehensible thing like this. Not a bunch of human lookalikes with spikes on their heads or whatever you see in Star Trek, etc.
Really is a cool movie, and stunning for sure! Even the credits are gorgeous. I can definitely recommend Ex Machina as well, which also has Oscar Isaac, really interesting movie
Really recommend Ex Machina and Sunshine (which Alex Garland wrote) for more incredible scifi. This and Sunshine are some of my favourites of the whole genre. The whole cosmic horror aspect of the film is perfect and the last 20 minutes are engraved to my mind with the insanely unique and perfect music and sound design.
OMG PLEASE REACT TO EX MACHINA IT IS AMAZINGGGGGGGG. It’s another movie directed by the director of this film, Alex Garland. It has really good sound design in it too. A stellar movie. One of my absolute favorites. I think you’ll like it too.
Homerton the mutant bear is actually my favorite Annihilation creature because its creepy looks are so cool. Not gonna lie. Even the mimics reminds me just like scp-939.
I thought this was such a cool movie. Beautiful to look at, but also mysterious and unsettling. And the bear scene was one of the creepiest things I've seen in a LONG time. Thanks to you and your Patron for this reaction.
Love the reaction!!! The scenrey also blows my mind. esp since it's to be the swampy Forgotten Coast in Florida but they filmed in Great Britian! With tons of set dressing to imitate swamplands. I guess actual marsh, actual non-solid footing + sweaty + mosquitoey + 🐊y conditions would look great but be a bugger to safely successfully film in. I did a boat tour near Fort Lauderdale; in a little marsh boat the dude took us out for like 20 minutes and we saw 5-6 🐊 I swear. Just lurking there under the water eyeing you.. creepy effin well evolved dinosaur mfers. Alex Garland wrote Sunshine (Danny Boyle) which is about a sort of similar "suicide mission" (a 'we need to do this and we hope we live but the odds areeee kinda iffy') to save the Sun. Quote: 《At the end of time, a moment will come when just one man remains. Then the moment will pass. Man will be gone. There will be nothing to show that we were ever here... but stardust.》 Writing that movie got Garland onto an existentialism kick, you can see it in his work as a director. I love the sad sort of cosmically lost tone of the book Annihilation (and the whole trilogy) and think Garland did it justice ✅ it's really an unfilmable book, Annihilation the movie is like the perfect movie to add the series not as a book remake but its separate addition to the compendium
If I remember correctly, this movie came out in limited theaters in the US, but everywhere else, it came out on Netflix. So, that could be why you've never really heard of it.
That fucking bear... I almost walked out after that because I was like I cannot deal with another else now. God damn horrified in a way I haven't been since I was a 10 year old child watching a scary movie
The book series it's based on is even weirder. Very well written, but also a very heavy read that will leave you a bit f'ed in the head and laying awake at night thinking about it.
Great movie and reaction! "Under The Skin" is another great alien movie, starring Scarlet Johansen, with a similar captivating pace and sense of mystrey.
You should read the book,this movie isn't about aliens, it's about evelution and what happens when somene is touched by something that can change their very d.n.a into something new. I do love the movie but the ending annoyed me it's better in the book cause the book explians so much more in detail about everything. In the book it wasn't her husband that came home but a clone of him in a way,his memories but none of his love for her or human emotions for that matter. This one ends with her coming home unlike in the book. so I guess one would consider that a better ending dk. she became something new in the book and never left that place after that is all. Basically the moment you step through the veil and inhale the spores in the air the body is changed but not everyone can take the changes and so it drives them mad. In Natalie Portman's character's case in the book her body was strong enough to take it and so she evolves into something new...something different but still human looking in a way if I remember correctly. You should check out Ex Machina it's an amazing movie with Oscar again and is different than most things seen out there.
It's science fiction for people who like science fiction. What is it, what does it want, what's the purpose of it? It's alien to humans. We aren't going to be able to understand something like that, at least not completely. Ex Machina is excellent.
Hey dude you should totally watch and react the boys it’s on prime video and is really good,if you’ve already reacted to it my bad, but it’s like a mix of justice league and invincible
This movie was very frustrating to try to watch. Emphasis on “try”. It was very hard to follow. However, “Ex Machina” is a wonderful movie and I think you’d really love it.
Ex Machina was a better movie, this is all style over substance (some great visuals and cinematography for sure) Hollywood is fucked, they used to make movies.
