Aaron Paul, Ash, Beulah Koale, Eiza Gonzalez, film festivals, Flying Lotus, horror, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott, movies, reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, SXSW, SXSW Film and TV Festival, SXSW Film Festival
April 7, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Flying Lotus
Culture Representation: Taking place in outer space, the sci-fi horror film “Ash” features a racially diverse group of people (white, African American, Latin and Asian) portraying astronauts.
Culture Clash: Two astronauts from the same spaceship crew try to find out what happened when one of the astronauts wakes up to find out that most of the crew members have been murdered.
Culture Audience: “Ash” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and sci-fi horror movies that take place in outer space.
“Ash” is obviously influenced by the “Alien” movie franchise. This sci-fi horror flick (about two astronauts trying to solve the mystery of a massacre on their spaceship) has some pacing that’s too slow, but this low-budget film is watchable overall. The acting is sufficient, and the movie makes up for its dull parts in the last third of the film, which has the most action.
Directed by Flying Lotus and written by Jonni Remmler, “Ash” has its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Flying Lotus also composed the impressive music score fo the movie. “Ash” begins by showing an astronaut named Riya (played by Eiza González) waking up on a spaceship in outer space and finding out that everyone she knew on the spaceship has been butally murdered, except for an astronaut named Catherine Clarke (played by Kate Elliott), who is missing.
Riya walks around by herself in a daze, inside and outside the ship. She is soon joined by another astronaut namd Brion Carlisle (played by Aaron Paul), who suddenly appears on the ship and tells her that he was part of the spaceship crew too. Riyah doesn’t remember Brion and wonders if he’s lying. He insists that he’s telling the truth.
Together, Riyah and Brion try to find out who or what killed these other astronauts, whose names are Adhi (played by Iko Uwais), Kevin (played by Beulah Koale) and Shawn Davis (played by Flying Lotus), who was captain of the spaceship. Several flashback scenes show what happened leading to up the murders. These astronauts, who had good camaraderie with each other, have been living on an isolated planet with many craters and where breathable air has become scarce. Brion and Riyah speculate that maybe Clarke breathed toxic air and possibly had psychotic break from reality.
The astronauts were on a mission to find a way to get more breathable air. Riyah and Brion are both very strong-willed and opinionated. It leads to inevitable conflicts when they have different ideas on how to solve immediate problems. The acting performances in “Ash” aren’t anything special, but they aren’t completely terrible either.
The spaceship has a non-verbal robot with artificial intelligence called the Mobile Diagnostic Surgery (M.D.S.) Bot, which can quickly diagnosis a medical problem and do surgery if necessary. Riyah constantly uses a medical patch on her neck to treat a fever that she says she has. The M.D.S. Bot performs a diagnosis on Riyah and determines that she has swelling in the brain. Her feverish memory could be the result of this brain swelling or could be the result of something else.
Much of “Ash” consists of Riyah and Brion clashing because they have a hard time trusting each other. At times, Riyah and Brion suspect each other of being the spaceship’s mass murderer. Riyah mainly thinks Clarke is the prime suspect and believes the best plan is to try to find Clarke to get answers on why this massacre happened. Brion disagrees and says it’s better to get off the planet because they’re running out of breathable air.
Because “Ash” has a limited number of locations in the story, some viewers might grow tired of seeing the same places over and over in the movie. However, the movie’s intention is to show how the ship and this desolate planet are very confining to the inhabitants. The mystery of who caused the massacre is fairly easy to solve after a while, and the buildup requires patience. However, there are some striking visuals in “Ash,” which ends in a predictable but satisfying way.
RLJE Entertainment released “Ash” in U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025.