The under-the-radar yet excellent sci-fi horror movie Ash pays homage to some of the very best movies in science fiction and horror from the past, all through the lens of director Flying Lotus’ uniquely haunting vision. The deep space horror movie is steeped in paranoia and dread as a young woman wakes up alone in a space station on a distant planet with no memory of who she is or what happened to her. She tries to piece together her situation with the help of a man who shows up claiming to be a fellow member of her crew.

Ash is the feature film directorial debut of rapper/producer Flying Lotus, and in his first feature-length foray he leans into sci-fi and horror tropes from the past. To be clear, it works to great effect, as Flying Lotus marries elements from influential works from the past with visceral violence and haunting beauty to create something new. The 41-year-old director has gone on record, citing some of his most important influences in crafting his vision, while others are obvious to true-blue sci-fi and horror fans. These eight movies clearly played a role in how Flying Lotus approached Ash.

8

Alien (1979)

The Godfather Of Deep Space Sci-Fi Horror

With no other context, the trailer for Ash made it seem like a sequel straight out of the Alien franchise. That is meant as a compliment; Ash manages to capture the claustrophobic terror of the original Alien, along with the crushing despair and dread that comes with being alone and afraid light years from anyone that can help you. Eiza González’s Riya is very much an Ellen Ripley stand-in, right down to her final battle against the alien parasite using a handheld flamethrower. Of all the movies that clearly influenced Ash, Alien is among the most prominent.

7

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s Alien Body Horror Epic

The influence of John Carpenter’s original The Thing on Ash can not be overstated. Riya’s paranoia of not knowing what Brion’s real intentions are is straight out of The Thing, as is the concept of an alien organism taking over the body of a crew member to further its own cause. Most prominently, however, is the crystal-clear influence that The Thing had on the alien parasite’s final, terrifying form. The parasite took over the corpse of the real Brion and burst out of him to pursue Riya, using his body as a husk while spewing forth tentacles and viscera.

6

Life (2017)

The Star-Studded Modern Alien Horror

The actual parasite itself, when first extracted from the tentacles of the larger organism that entrenched itself in the space station’s mechanisms and hull, is eerily reminiscent of the earliest stages of Calvin, the rapidly-evolving cellular organism from Daniel Espinosa’s 2017 horror movie Life. That movie also includes a scene in which one of the astronauts, struggling for survival against the ravenous alien life form, uses a handheld flamethrower in an attempt to kill the monster. While killing aliens with flamethrowers is commonplace in sci-fi, the alien’s appearance does appear to have some loose inspiration from Calvin.

5

Annihilation (2018)

Alex Garland’s Thought-Provoking And Visceral Genre-Bender

One of the distinct elements of Flying Lotus’ feature is the ever-shifting atmosphere of the planet Ash. It’s unsettling and beautiful at the same time; its pulsing, rippling motion approximates an old-school audio visualizer, which makes sense given Flying Lotus’ background in music. It’s also reminiscent of the Shimmer, the reality-bending region of space-time that acts as the main setting for Alex Garland’s cosmic horror Annihilation. It’s a distinctly alien environment in Ash just as it is in Annihilation, meant to unnerve the viewer due to how foreign it is to our Earth-bound sensibilities.

4

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

An All-Time Sci-Fi Horror Classic

The influence of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is rather obvious, as the eponymous aliens’ goals in that movie are similar to those in Ash. In Philip Kaufman’s 1978 classic, a parasitic alien race invades the Earth after fleeing from their dying home planet, and attempt to replace all of humanity with “pod people”, cloned versions that are in fact the parasitic aliens. Ash actually inverts this concept, as it’s humanity who is escaping their dying planet, and inadvertently invade the planet of the parasitic aliens. However, there are no clones–the alien hive mind invades and controls human bodies.

3

Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter’s Standard-Bearer For Modern Horror

The major influence of Halloween is less in the visuals of Ash and more in the soundtrack. Flying Lotus’ chops as a producer and musician yielded an incredible score for the movie, and he managed to blend modern, alien sounds with notes from classic horror scores. While there is likely inspiration from a number of horror classics, John Carpenter’s main theme for the original Halloween is the most famous. One song on the Ash soundtrack in particular, тιтled “IMMEDIATE DANGER”, almost sounds like a modernized, intensified version of that theme.

2

The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1981)

Sam Raimi’s Beloved Low-Budget Gore-Fest

The many brutal, bloody images placed in Riya’s head by the parasite certainly conjure elements of the Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise, and director Flying Lotus confirmed that it was at least in his head while working on the movie in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine. Flying Lotus noted that there were many different iterations of alien’s final form, when it mutates the reanimated corpse of Brion. As he puts it, “…at one point, we had him floating on some Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ craziness.“ Destruction of the human form is prevalent in Ash, just as it is in the Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ movies.

1

Event Horizon (1997)

Paul Anderson’s Underappreciated 90s Sci-Fi Cult Classic

The influences from the cult classic Event Horizon are pretty clear in Ash. The gruesome nature of the action along with the creature feature elements, all of which are set in deep space, make the parallels plain as day. Where Ash separates itself is in the quality of the production; while Event Horizon was a muddled mess in many regards, Ash is sleek and well-crafted. Ash seems destined for cult classichood itself, as the lack of marketing will likely mean a modest box office return. Once it hits streaming platforms, Ash could take off in popularity.

Ash Also Draws Heavily From Sci-Fi & Horror Video Games

It would be an egregious omission not to mention Flying Lotus’ self-ᴀssessed greatest influence in making Ash: video games. As he noted in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, video games were at the forefront of his mind while making the movie, and those who have played games like ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Space will recognize the parallels. As Flying Lotus noted:

The one thing that people don’t ask me about, which I wish they would, is video games. Because to me, that’s such a huge inspiration, a super huge influence thing. There was another game that I thought of recently, Death Stranding. That game was pretty impactful. The Silent Hill series, ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Space, and Resident Evil, I threw all those games into this movie.

Ash is an extremely impressive feature film debut, and Flying Lotus should get his flowers for managing to parlay the beloved past of sci-fi horror into something visually fresh for the genre. The story isn’t ground-breaking, but it’s an extremely entertaining watch for fans of either sci-fi or horror, if for no other reason than to hunt for visual and conceptual references to classics of the genres.

Source: Filmmaker Magazine, Bloody Disgusting