Annihilation (2018)

ANNIHILATION  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Alex Garland
    Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac,
    Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson,
    Sonoya Mizuno, David Gyasi, Benedict Wong
On the surface, at least, "Annihilation" is a little like "The Descent", a 2005 movie in which a handful of adventurous women head down into an unexplored cave and meet all kinds of horror. In this movie, a handful of adventurous women head into something called "the shimmer," a mysterious, expanding entity that has taken over a national park and makes hideous stuff happen to anybody who goes in there. One of the women, played by Natalie Portman, is a biological researcher whose specialty is studying cancer cells. By testing her own blood using a microscope she carries in her backpack, Natalie discovers that the shimmer, whatever it is, can duplicate itself the same way the cells do. What's more, it can approproate the DNA of anything it comes in contact with, and that would include the women. There are monsters in the shimmer, too, an alligator that's bigger than anything anybody's ever seen, and another creature that at first appears to be a bear, but turns out to be more like a bear-sized rat. So you've got "The Descent", in which an all-female cast finds something awful in a cave, and "Annihilation", where a key plot point involves reproduction and the climactic goal is a lighthouse. Dr. Freud might have something to say about that.