Ash (2025) Dir: Flying Lotus
- Ridley Coote
- Sep 16
- 2 min read
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Despite not receiving a glowing critical reception, I was still more than intrigued by the prospect of this science fiction cosmic horror film, from the wonderfully named director Flying Lotus. If there are two genres that I am likely to be hooked by, it's science fiction and horror, so when the two are combined, it always grabs my attention. I was hoping for the strange and the surreal, the odd and the otherworldly.
The visuals divided me greatly. One could refer to this film's unique cinematography as very striking. It very heavily doused its characters and setting in a mix of red and blue lighting, which I, generally speaking, quite enjoyed, although there was no denying that its use was very heavy handed. The film tried to have CGI and practical effects in abundance, but each one made the other look worse. I think the film should have committed more to the practical effects side of things, rather than trying to do both.
The combination of heavily cinematic shots, as well as the occasional POV shot, gave the effect of watching a video game playthrough, at times. That isn't necessarily a problem - I didn't hate how the film looked, for the most part. However, it was slightly distracting, feeling as though I were watching a series of cut-scenes, rather than a film. I think this would have made a legitimately very engaging and intriguing video game, in fairness.
Divisive was the word of the day when it came to my viewing experience with this film, as one can gather from my words above. Some of this film was genuinely brilliant, but equally, some of it was just terrible. I think it would be fair to say that the concept was there, but the execution was not. I did find the story engaging, but some of the developments were a little bit ridiculous and nonsensical, and the writing of dialogue was very subpar.
What was even more conflicting, was how inconsistent the acting was. Eiza González had moments that I found extremely compelling, but she spent so much of the film, especially the first act, overacting, which gave a significant portion of her performance a forced feel. My contrasting emotions continued in regards to Aaron Paul's performance too. He had one or two very succinct, well-acted scenes, but he failed to do this on a consistent basis, often feeling hollow, as a result.
Overall, this might end up being one of the biggest missed opportunities of the year, as far as I'm concerned. This could have been a suspenseful, creepy, piece of sci-fi, but it just missed the mark in a few key areas. The mystery element worked well, for the most part, but the writing let down a lot of this film's potential. I was engaged with it, but I wasn't satisfied. I needed more, and the film frankly deserved more from its writer.
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