Disaster You Can’t Look Away From (But Maybe Should)

If a movie could embody the feeling of wandering a foggy parking lot looking for your car at 2 AM while slowly realizing you don’t even remember why you’re there, ASH would be it. Not that that would ever happen to me.

Mother of Movies always goes in hoping for the best. How could you not? Especially when the premise promises rogue parasites and a cast and crew cooler than anything I’ll ever hallucinate on a foggy dancefloor at the pub at closing time.

The film clearly knows the legends it wants to honor, the credits tip a hat to Terrence Malick’s dreamlike touch, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s haunted soundscapes, and John Carpenter’s brooding synths. Flying Lotus leans into the homage, too, crafting a soundtrack thick with Carpenter’s DNA. ASH wears its influences like a badge, but somewhere along the way, the shine wears thin.

A Hopeful Beginning (Before the Rage Monsters)

ASH kicks off with Riya (Eiza González) waking up in a grimy, ash-choked wasteland, bleeding from the head, her memory in tatters. There are dead bodies around. Alarm sirens bleat in the background. Her first instinct?
You guessed it, the horror movie classic: yelling “Hello?” into the void.

From there, ASH sets up a familiar but juicy premise:
Memory loss.
Mysterious space facility.
Something was wrong in the air (besides the ominous falling ash).

Riya battles suffocating air, flashbacks she can’t trust, and memories of her crewmates, memories that start peeling back the horrifying truth.
And somewhere out there (or maybe in here)… Rage Monsters lurk, infected by something alien, something patient.

It could’ve been brilliant. Instead, it’s a slow-burning artsy anti-Blob, but hey, at least it’s a very stylish Resident Evil flavored science fiction flick.

Tight Suits, Bad Wigs, and “Sorry for Your Loss” Bots

Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off:

• The writing feels like it was assembled during a particularly low-energy escape room challenge.
• The characters are thin sketches, beautiful, well-lit sketches, but sketches nonetheless.
• At some point, I realized I cared more about Riya’s space suit (not waterproof, by the way, a major design flaw) than the fate of humanity.

There’s a medibot onboard the station, programmed to heal wounds, play cheerful tunes post-surgery, and deliver heartfelt death notifications like “Sorry for your loss” with the same energy as a microwave beeping when the popcorn is done.
By the halfway point, it was the only character I trusted.

And then, of course, there are the Rage Monsters: infected former crewmates who look like they’ve walked off the set of a community theater zombie play, ready to rage, roar, and hurl themselves into walls at full speed.
Think The Thing (1982), but make it low budget, high energy, and weirdly polite at times.

The Good (Yes, Really) and The Other Bits | I’m Sorry

What ASH gets right:

• The neon lighting and fog-drenched atmosphere? Chef’s kiss.
• Eiza González, even when given a script that does her no favors, remains magnetic.
• Some of the low-budget effects are super creative, slimy, practical, and bloody. CGI not so much. Except for that tongue alien. That was cool.
• That lighting and feeling of being in space.
• Aaron Paul
• Shudder and AMC+

Where ASH gets confusing:

• The dialogue was uninteresting. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
• Character reactions that feel about three emotions short of human.
• Sci-fi concepts are presented like mission instructions, missing half the pages.
• Emotional moments dropped in like an afterthought. Literally.

⚠️ Spoiler Zone Ahead ⚠️

The deeper Riya digs into her memories (and the facility’s conveniently glitchy records), the clearer the horror becomes:
The planet they were studying was terraforming itself, using the crew as fertilizer.

One by one, her crewmates fall:

• Sean throws a rock into an alien hole because, of course, he does, and promptly gets face-blasted into oblivion.
• Audi gets nose-pierced by an eager alien spore and transforms into a ragey, tentacle-flavored mess.
• Kevin tries to kiss Riya while infected (romantic?), and when she politely stabs him, his parasite jumps ship.

Through all this, the “infection” proves more insidious than expected:
Brion, the one crewmate she trusted (played by Aaron Paul, sleepwalking through the role like his contract forbade coffee but looking fine and mysterious if that was what was intended), turns out to have been compromised ages ago.

The climax sees Riya facing off against The Parasite Boss Level X:
All tentacles, rage, and growling like he wants to take over the world, but inhabiting Brion wasn’t good enough.
Armed with a flame-throwing gun machine and feminine rage, she fights back, rips the parasite out of herself (via a shockingly durable medibot), and barely escapes, emotionally broken, physically battered, but stubbornly alive.

Or at least… alive enough to drift tearfully into the stars while montage-crying over side characters no one remembers.

Final Verdict: For the Chaos Enthusiasts Only

Look
I love sci-fi.
I love body horror.
I love parasite movies.

Blomkamp, Iko Uwais, Flying Lotus, Aaron Paul, come on. This production lineup is pure fantasy. I’d amputate a toe just to sniff the set. BUT, ASH feels like it wanted to be all of those things, and then got distracted midway through by its own pretty lighting.

If you are the kind of movie lover who can forgive a lot in exchange for a little practical slime, neon nightmares, and the philosophical question “Are humans just inefficient investments?” then ASH might, might, be your jam.

Quote from “Ash 2025”

Otherwise, consider this one a beautiful wreck best left buried under the ash. Or watch it because it’s pretty.

For more pretty science fiction films: Try Mother of Movies, Neon Void Crossing curated selection.

Mother of Movies Rating:

2.5 Medibots Playing the Funeral Tune out of 5
(and half a rage monster flopping through a malfunctioning airlock)

Film Info Panel