The Lovecraftian nature of 'Annihilation'

Annihilation's alien-like bubble and its creations make you wonder what creation actually is in a horrifying way.

'Annihilation' is a movie that was released by Netflix back in 2018. Directed by Alex Garland, who is known for other films such as 'Ex-Machina', and most recently, 'MEN'. The movie follows a group of women with troubled pasts, travelling into this unknown bubble that has formed and keeps growing affecting everything it touches. The leader of this group, Lena, played by Natalie Portman, is a former soldier searching for answers within this bubble of what happened to her husband.

So, what’s so Lovecraftian about this film?

Well, when we think of Lovecraft or Lovecraftian-type things, we often think about horrifying things beyond our comprehension. Creatures larger than our universe itself, even the glimpse of such a creature or thing driving us insane.

The thing is, this movie flips this expectation of Lovecraftian on its head for most of its runtime. The bubble is weirdly beautiful yet also threatening like nature itself. An amalgamation of colours on a thin layer separates what's inside from what's outside. Although the mere sight of this unknown container of sorts is alien-esq, it’s what’s inside that starts to stir the Lovecraftian pot. When the team enters the bubble, they see nothing horrible, but in fact beautiful. They see trees full of leaves, flowers blooming, and odd creatures grazing in the distance. The bubble isn't entirely bad. It mutates and combines genes of plant life and wildlife creating new species. Almost everything inside the bubble thrives, the one exception being humans.

The species that took over the world and damage its natural beauty are the ones in danger. This is where the horrifying side of Lovecraft we are familiar with comes in. Since the bubble mutates everything within it, the predators become more dangerous. They end up facing an alligator that has hundreds of teeth, and a blind bear with no face that can mimic the last words of its victims. The plant life also turns against them. Flowers take over people creating these hollow human-shaped Boque structures, and fungus splits and breaks down the human body. This gives off one message: To create there must be destruction. For life to go on things must die, and through death, things are born.

And it all ends with this alien that starts off as a cloud of infinite proportions that mimics all of Natalie Portman's movements. This film goes from a bit Lovecraftian at the start to really Lovecraftian with incomprehensible objects and alien-like creatures that mirror your movements, but it doesn’t do it like other movies. It shows Lovecraftian horror in a good light through the creation of life and death. The film mirrors nature through how it can be horrifying and beautiful simultaneously. This film's use of Lovecraftian horror is nothing like we've ever seen and highly suggest you watch it yourself to experience it.