Annihilation is based on a biologist who joins an exhibition, she joins an expedition after the return of her boyfriend who was missing for a year, in search of where he has been.
The exhibition involves heading into swampland that had earlier been hit by a meteor, the space surrounded by a mysterious ‘shimmer’ more like a bubble, blocking all signal and contact to the outside world.
Annihilation is set around five strong women scientists on a mission to find out what this alien species is doing, this particular film inspired me within my filmmaking practice, taking in natural elements and twisting them, e.g. the synopsis once the 5 women enter the ‘shimmer’ is that the alien spices ‘doubles’ everything, all cells double, and they slowly realise the ‘human life’ is merging with ‘plant life’.
A rare strength of the film is that it allowed the audience to put together what was happening, explaining very little to us, a simplistic narrative that encompassed multiple themes.
The colour scheme inspired me being bold and quite dark, gloomy yet with a burst of colour, the production design is something that I’m personally going to take higher account of in future films, the tree people, in particular, inspired me within ‘Annihilation’.
