“Ash” is one of the most stylish, surreal and shocking sci-fi films of recent memory and it’s recently joined AMC’s horror streaming service Shudder after a limited theatrical release.
With its Lovecraftian cosmic horror and respectful nods to Paul W.S. Anderson’s “Event Horizon” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” director Flying Lotus’ “Ash” is a phantasmagoric grindhouse-style ’90s throwback reminiscent of movies like Vincenzo Natali’s “Cube” and Richard Stanley’s “Hardware”.
Delivered to theaters on March 21, “Ash” is now reaching out to a far wider audience to dazzle them with its mind-bending antics. We were fortunate enough to sit down with Grammy-winning musician and filmmaker Flying Lotus, who directed “Ash”, to pick his brains about his inspirations for this cosmic nightmare of a motion picture.
“Ash” stars Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad,” “Need for Speed”) and Eiza González (“Baby Driver”) in a chilling tale of a doomed exoplanet expedition and rescue, where an unlikely extra-terrestrial presence has already staked a terraforming claim to the hostile territory. When amnesia claims our main character, Riya, we descend into a nightmarish optical fantasia with Flying Lotus also providing the atmospheric synthwave score as the otherworldly mystery unfolds.
“The script [by Jonni Remmler] was brought to me and it was significantly different than what was on the screen,” Flying Lotus tells Space.com. “I was really attracted to the mystery and what was going on and why. A lot of it felt like a video game to me when I read it and I’m a big gamer too so it really touched me in that way.”
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As preparation for directing this ambitious indie film, Flying Lotus immersed himself in all the essentials of the genre hoping to create a hypnotic visual feast to dazzle the eye and mind.
“I wanted to try to stay away from ‘Alien’ as much as possible,” he notes. “You can only do so much in the sci-fi world without referencing ‘Alien’ a little. And ‘Event Horizon,’ I tried to stay away from that. One that was really big for ‘Ash’ was ‘Suspiria’ and a lot of that kind of theatrical color, and trying to get psychedelic with the colors and the negative space, playing with unjustified light sources. The John Carpenter stuff was super influential, particularly ‘Halloween’. I feel like there was a moment I straight out lifted right out of ‘Halloween.’ Like when the alien gets up before the final confrontation. I tried to pull from different things that weren’t obvious choices. A lot of video games like ‘Silent Hill,’ ‘Resident Evil,’ any of those classic first-person shooters.”
Aaron Paul and Eiza González made for a formidable acting duo starring in this harrowing and haunting sci-fi project, casting choices that initially made Flying Lotus a bit apprehensive.
“I was really nervous at first. I think it was pretty obvious, but eventually you get into a groove and start to understand how you can push people and they can push back. Everyone trusts each other over time. They were probably wondering if they could trust me to carry this movie. For the first time I felt like these two people cared about this project as much as I do. I’ve always wished for something like that. Aaron was fully committed, even beyond the script. Eiza was so into it because she’s in every frame so it was a massive undertaking for her.”
With “Ash” being helmed by a notable Grammy-winning musician, rapper, and producer, loyal fans knew that the movie would be injected with a killer original electronic score and audiences were not disappointed.
“I started writing the music as soon as I got the script,” he recalls. “But when it was time to edit the movie none of it worked. The whole vibe, the soundscape, was totally different. I ended up having to go to New Zealand to do the music. It was just me and my laptop so I really tried to hone in on a sound I could do myself. I thought of John Carpenter a lot because when he was doing ‘Halloween’ and some of his other movies he was up against it. Had no time, no money, no people.
“I tried to get into that spirit and even hit him up. We talked on Zoom a bit and it was awesome. It was a situation of only having my computer and a MIDI controller, which was ultimately very inspiring and liberating. I’ve gotten attached to my L.A. studio where I have every keyboard you can imagine, so it was going back to basics, back to grandma’s house where all I had is a MIDI controller and some headphones and I loved it. I was on another planet in New Zealand. Alone and isolated. I felt like Riya, having to creatively survive in this environment. It was a challenge but when we got to the music and sound it was definitely the most fun.”
“Ash” is available to stream on Shudder now.