While Annihilation flopped at the box office, the 2018 film’s popularity (and truly terrifying sequences) reinvigorated audience interest in the sci-fi/horror genre and had a hand in paving the way for a return to the sub-genre’s roots.
Annihilation was released on February 13, 2018 and was directed by Alex Garland, who burst onto the scene with the tremendous success of his directorial debut, Ex-Machina. The film starred Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac. Annihilation was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. Thematically, it’s similar to Ridley Scott’s Alien without the space epic, and follows scientists who encounter a strange area known as “The Shimmer”, which is host to numerous types of mutated plants and animals.
Beyond the obvious science fiction elements, Annihilation explores some very human themes, including humans leading a path through overzealous interest that could, inevitably, lead to their own destruction. Garland likes to utilize technology as a central theme which turns into commentary on humanity, as he did in Ex-Machina, though this is common in sci-fi/horror. The existential crises of mankind plus the potential dangers of scientific discovery typically make good plot fodder. Annihilation was not a box office heavy hitter, though this could be blamed on its theatrical release being closely tied to its release on Netflix, which happened only 17 days later. Still, it was an ambitious, promising movie that got audiences talking, and helped other sci-fi horror notions come back to the table.
Annihilation’s Popularity Paved The Way For A Resurgence Of Sci-Fi Horror
Annihilation’s cerebral sci-fi elements blended with moments of true terror, such as the screaming bear sequence, and showed audiences just how good the mash-up genre could be, when handled correctly. Though sci-fi horror has reached incredible heights in the past, it has gone through a diminished interest, oddly enough, even with technology becoming at the forefront of many people’s greatest fears. Series like Black Mirror have explored some of these concepts, though more from the science fiction side than straight up horror, which is typically the path chosen. However, movies like Annihilation and another 2018 smash hit, A Quiet Place, showed that combined, both elements find their most natural pacing as a duo.
2018 also included sci-fi/horror titles such as Overlord, Upgrade, and The Predator. 2019 brought more of these to the forefront, hoping to capitalize on some of the previous year’s success and released the evil Superman movie, Brightburn. Blumhouse’s Happy Death Day 2U took a science fiction turn within its Groundhog Day inspired teen slasher as well, which was an interesting angle for the budding franchise. 2020 is on track to release quite a few sci-fi/horror titles, including Underwater, Leigh Whannell’s take on The Invisible Man, New Mutants from the X-Men franchise, and Morbius, which is another solo film based on a Spider-Man villain. 2020 will also bring forth A Quiet Place 2, which brings everything full circle and shows that sci-fi/horror is alive and well again with new, interesting concepts instead of just additions to popular franchises.
While Annihilation didn’t accomplish this feat alone, it showed that originality can still make quite a bit of difference in the horror genre and, despite popular franchises being on top more often than not, proves original ideas in Hollywood still have a fighting chance.
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