The high-concept sci-fi horror film “Ash,” a hazy story about an amnesiac deep-space explorer who awakens to discover her entire crew was killed, is light on answers but heavy on style.
The movie begins with a staggered Riya (Eiza González) surveying the mutilated bodies on the cold minimalist floors and walls of her interstellar outpost. There is an unexplainable gash on her forehead and a robotic system alerting her to abnormal activity happening around her. She and her crew members arrived on this distant planet — a craggy world curtained by cobalt-blue shadows and white embers — in search of a potential new home for mankind, but found something far more sinister. If only she could remember what happened.
Though not as adventurous, “Ash,” from the musician-turned-director Steven Ellison, known as Flying Lotus, conjures comparisons to “Alien” and “Mission to Mars.” Its futuristic science — a terraforming planet, celestial alignment, parasitic beings — is equally wonky. Because the fractal script doesn’t aim to provide explanations, this film can be confusing. But that incomprehensibility is part of its aesthetically alluring package.
By applying psychedelic medical patches to her neck, Riya is able to channel gruesome memories in loud drips and booming drops, releasing a wave of scratchy, blurred frames recalling melted faces and stomach-churning scenes set to Flying Lotus’s brooding score. When another voyager (Aaron Paul) arrives, this incites further questions whose revelations inspire a grisly third act freak-out; the mesmerizing barrage of gore makes for a memorable display.
Ash
Rated R for bloody violence, gore and language. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters.
