'Annihilation': The Films & Ideas That Influenced Alex Garland's Sci-Fi Classic

If you saw Alex Garland‘s sci-fi mind-bender “Annihilation” back in February, chances are you’re still trying to unpack everything you experienced (here’s our review). Honestly, trying to understand the full scope of the hallucinatory film is a feat beyond just one article. But if we’re going to understand “Annihilation,” maybe the place to begin isn’t with the film, but instead its influences.

In a video essay from Fandor, audiences have an opportunity to do just that. By understanding where Garland is coming from in his cinematic adaptation of the popular, enigmatic Jeff VanderMeer novel, audiences, too, can have some semblance of clearer understanding. At least, that’s the hope of the video essay. In the combined genres of science fiction and horror, there are enough places we can look to find some inspiration for Garland’s film. But the video essay breaks it down into two movies and a psychological idea.

John Carpenter‘s 1982 horror “The Thing” isn’t much of a surprise when considering the ideas behind it. The creatures can mold with its human host and a pseudo-Jekyll and Hyde type of grueling transformation take place. In “Annihilation,” this combination is taken a step further, and honestly, given a much more terrifying spin. We also get some sense of otherworldly with “Enter The Void.” And the pair works simultaneously to conjure a real internal schism between the conscious and subconscious; impulsivity and control.

“Annihilation” is a deep, mysterious film that lives somewhere between the organic form and the shadow. By peeling back the layers of Garland’s film, we can find some sort of reassurance as to what it’s all about. It’s rare to get a smart and marketable science fiction film and just like “Ex Machina” before it, Garland delivers another modern otherworldly classic that leaves audiences awestruck and with much to contemplate long after the movie is over.