REVIEW: ASH (2025)

By Stephen Pytak

It pays homage to the films in the "Alien" franchise, John Carpenter's masterpiece "The Thing (1982)," and video games like "Dead Space."

But "Ash (2025)" is also a decent horror sci-fi flick in its own right.

Like "Strange Darling (2024)," its plot is not rolled out in A-B-C order. It's structured in such a way so as to maximize suspense. And for the most part, it works.

The lead character is an astronaut named "Riya (played by Eiza González)." Her story takes place in the future, year unknown. 

She is assigned to a space station on a distant planet. The air is breathable, but alien-crafted holes in the ground send bursts of debris into the air from time to time. Sometimes it looks like it's snowing. The crew nicknamed the place "Ash." 

Earth is in need of resources. And she is a member of a crew of interstellar explorers looking for anything out there which can help the human race.

When the film opens, Riya wakes up. She has been bruised and beaten. Something terrible has happened. She stumbles through some dimly lit hallways. They look like they were lit by fans of Dario Argento's "Suspira (1977)." She finds most of her crew has been slaughtered. She isn't quite sure what happened. But, obviously, there is a killer on board. 

Did one of the crew members go insane?

Is some other malevolent force at work?

She tries to remember, but can't. 

Her memory is fuzzy.

And she doesn't know why.

So her journey begins. 

Along the way, she experiences terrifying flashbacks, memories of Lovecraftian creepy crawlers which escaped from a lab and turned her fellow crew members into bloodthirsty monsters.

Our villains?

Maybe.

But if all of this madness has occurred, why is she still alive?

That's one of the mysteries she has to solve.

Is she the story's hero? Or villain?

Ditto. 

And for the most part, the payoff is smart and the third act is a lot of fun. 

González is solid. She's the film's MVP. And I hope this film gives her career a boost.

I didn't know anyone in the cast. I did some research. I thought I recognized Aaron Paul who played "Brion." Turns out he played "Francis" in "The Last House on the Left (2009)."

He and González are the stand-outs. 

Eiza González as Riya in "ASH (2025)." 

The director is among the main players as well.

Flying Lotus not only plays one of the crew members, "Davis," but he composed the score for the film. And it's a pretty good score, actually.

FlyLo has released a number of studio albums over the years and, in 2021, he won a Grammy, "Best Progressive R&B Album" for "It Is What It Is."

Prior to "Ash (2025)," he directed the "Ozzy's Dungeon" segment for the film "V/H/S/99 (2022)."

I've honestly never seen any films made by Flying Lotus. But he does some solid work here, crafting a cinematic journey that kept me engaged as I sat in the AMC Pottsgrove 12 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 24, 2025, in a mostly empty theater. I think there was only one other person in there for the 3:15 p.m. show.

I love the look of the film, in particular the careful use of red and blue lights in a realm of shadow and mystery. Some care was put into this low-budget affair.

The filmmakers also managed to generate some suspense. "Ash (2025)" also delivers some decent action scenes, and neat bits of humor.

I love the portable medical support unit Riya has to use during the course of her investigation. She uses it to figure out what killed her fellow crew members. She also uses it to do a bit of self surgery. 

Watch that scene closely, in particular the computer screen. 

Once the machine completes a task, the program does what a lot of online businesses do these days. The computer engaged the user with a customer feedback questionnaire, a five-star survey.

It's a small detail, but it really made me believe the thing was real.

It's something a company like Weyland-Yutani would include on their devices.

And it's something "Snake Plissken" can relate to: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

I'd like to see a sequel to "Ash (2025)." But to explain why, I have to do a few spoilers.

Turns out the villain is a highly intelligent parasite which can move with the ease of the Symbiote from the "Spider-Man" comics. While there are many of them, they share a hive mind. They have populated the planet our heroes have landed on, and they are determined to protect it.

These things like to mess with any living organism they come into contact with. Heck, "Riddick" would have trouble dealing with this.

Make sure to stay in your seat for a mid-credits scene. 

And you'll find that the story continues. The screws keep turning.

By the way, I'm hoping this gets a decent video release, perhaps through Second Sight Films. And it could also use a commentary or two.

RATING (On a scale of 1 to 5): 4.