Ash: reviews

What the critics say average 6.3 from 18 outlets

• 8.5 Film ThreatKent Hill Ash is riveting, even as it drifts away from and back into the precarious tropes of the genre, like waves against the shore. Read
• 8.0 The Daily BeastNick Schager Now in theaters, it’s a trippy and monstrous amalgam of the genre’s best video games (Dead Space, Resident Evil) and movies (Event Horizon, The Thing, and of course Alien, whom it slyly references with its title). Read
• 7.5 Roger EbertZachary Lee It’s a B-movie operating at the highest levels of craftsmanship, intrigue, and performance. Read
• 7.0 VarietyPeter Debruge The movie’s razor-sharp visuals leave scratch marks on the back of your eyeballs, and they’re liable to burst back into your consciousness in subsequent dreams. Read
• 7.0 Screen DailyTim Grierson The sci-fi horror-thriller Ash makes the most of a minimal budget, casting Eiza Gonzalez as the lone survivor on a distant planet who is unsure how she got there or who she is. With Aaron Paul playing a fellow astronaut trying to help jog her memory about a massacre that occurred at the base, the film quickly establishes an aura of paranoia and bad vibes, paving the way for deft twists and an appreciably gory finale. Read
• 7.0 Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele “Ash” is categorically a vibe more than it is an especially unique story or illuminating character study, even if González’s steely beauty conveys plenty about the psychological stakes at hand. But in this age of expensive and overwrought world-building, it’s Ellison’s experiential care with well-worn material that delivers the goods. Read
• 6.7 IndiewireKatie Rife trying to fight this film’s sensations, as unpleasant as they may be at times, will bring nothing but misery. So just give in, vibe out, and take solace in the fact that “Ash” is way more accessible than Flying Lotus’ first film. Read
• 6.7 Paste MagazineJesse Hassenger Ash could be a rumination on the nature of identity, or the destructive colonial spirit of Americans, or the indescribable horrors of a world beyond our own ruined one, but despite all of its cranked-up imagery and sometimes-confusing storytelling, it’s tidier and less thought-provoking than any of that – a genre exercise, capably extended. Read
• 6.3 Slant MagazineSteven Scaife Flying Lotus and his collaborators give Ash enough visual flair to occasionally transcend such limitations as forgettable characters with fuzzy motivations. Read
• 6.3 ReelViewsJames Berardinelli The film will likely find a receptive audience among those who enjoy blood-soaked B movies. It has enough gory elements to enhance the overpowering mood. Read
• 6.0 ColliderNate Richard Ash feels too familiar, which is disappointing coming from such an idiosyncratic filmmaker like Flying Lotus. This material feels like it's too derivative to be effective, but the video game-like atmosphere, bonkers direction, and reliable cast make it far more watchable. Read
• 6.0 New York TimesRobert Daniels The high-concept sci-fi horror film “Ash,” a hazy story about an amnesiac deep-space explorer who awakens to discover her entire crew was killed, is light on answers but heavy on style. Read
• 5.8 The WrapWilliam Bibbiani The word “Competent!” rarely makes it into a movie’s marketing materials no matter how accurate it is. Read
• 5.0 Screen RantMae Abdulbaki Ash can be horrific and genuinely startling; there’s a specific scene near the end that underscores the apprehension that permeates the film. It’s chilling and memorable. And yet, had the sci-fi thriller given its characters more dimension, it would have been all the stronger. Read
• 5.0 IGNRafael Motamayor With heavy inspirations from games like Dead Space and movies like Alien and The Thing, Flying Lotus' Ash is an ambitious, visually enthralling sci-fi horror movie. But its tale of a space station terrorized by a mysterious, gooey threat is otherwise empty and derivative, and takes too long to get going. Read
• 5.0 The A.V. ClubJacob Oller true to its inspirations, Ash offers up a formal mix between traditional sci-fi filmmaking and frequent first-person segments (either through pseudo-body cam footage or more explicitly video game-like bouts of point-of-view panic) that gives the familiarity a bit more energy than your average knock-off. Read
• 5.0 Decine21Juan Luis Sánchez The opening is promising, but in the end it falls into being a collage of references with no narrative cohesion, its pretentious philosophical allusions feeling forced. Read
• 5.0 La EstatuillaJorge Espinoza Lasso Ash’s visual identity and reflective nature deserve applause; they give it a personality of its own and make it a challenging proposition for the viewer. Its lack of self-confidence, however, keeps it from making the most of those qualities and saddles it with an ending that betrays its bold nature for a generic resolution. Read