Copy post — Tela Network

Annihilation: An edge case in cinema
StJohn Piano
13 July 2026
Post #146
http://tela.network/forum/146/

Annihilation [2018] is the one film where I would respond "I don't know" to the following questions:

- Did you like the film ?
- Is it a good film ?
- Would you recommend it ?
- Should some parts be removed or toned down ?
- Is it a film ?

Warning: There are 2+ scenes that are pure nightmare fuel.

But I love it for one specific aspect: The portrayal of an encounter with the truly and completely alien.

The screenwriter and director was Alex Garland.

From Wikipedia:

Garland said his adaptation is "a memory of the book", with the intention of capturing the "dreamlike nature" and tone of his experience reading VanderMeer's novel. Rather than trying to directly adapt the book, Garland deliberately took the story in his own direction, with VanderMeer's permission.

...

Some critics have noted the film has similarities with Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1972 science-fiction novel Roadside Picnic and Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film adaptation, Stalker.