Ash was a roller coaster… one with a five minute chain ride up a hill with a thirty second ride on the other side. It’s a rather slow and frustrating “we aren’t telling you anything” premise that eventually gets to a solid freakout finale.

It’s about a scientific expedition of dummies who land on a planet to see if it’d make a good colony. There’s some kind of disaster and our hero wakes up with movie amnesia and we spend most the rest of the movie trying to figure out what happened.

If this flick were half its length, it’d be pretty terrific. Stretched to the requisite ninety minutes though, it’s a little tiresome. Its first half is a lot of hand-waving over what happened but what happened could have been anything. It looks good at least… a little murky at times but a nice splash of red every now and again helps.

The casting is curious with Eiza Gonzales putting in the work… and being surrounded by Aaron Paul and Iko Uwais. And Flying Lotus… who also directed. Yes, I’m uncool and had to google what a Flying Lotus was.

I was all set to give it a lower score when they finally reveal The Truth. And it’s not unique or impressive… it’s pretty familiar but at least its something. They manage to do some explosively freakout things with it, including a one-sided conversation that made me wonder if anyone from the studio was there to give them notes. It’s just so weird so late in the film but I kind of dug its abstract crazy.

The film ultimately turns into a gnarly body horror that was pretty cool. I wish it was in service of a better, more balanced, and less predictable storyline. Even the mid-credit scene was a “figured they’d do that”.

But I enjoyed what they pulled off on its own merits… if only the first half had been better or the movie shorter, I’d give it a higher score easy. But just by going for broke, I’m nudging my score up a little bit.

Score: 76