The final days of SXSW are upon us, and so far the film festival has given us some promising horror movies to look forward to. On Tuesday, the audience got to see the premiere of director Flying Lotus’ Ash, and nothing but good reviews were posted afterward. It has a 100% fresh score on Rotten tomatoes—a first for the genre from this year’s festival. The good news is that film will be released theatrically on March 21 so everyone can form their own opinions.
Other critically lauded horror titles from SXSW this year are Drop, Good Boy and Clown in a Cornfield.
The consensus about Ash is that it has a lot to be thankful for since it borrows themes from films that came before it.
“Imagine a somewhat lesser version of Event Horizon or a MUCH better version of Supernova, and that’s about what you get with Ash.,” says JoBlo critic Chris Bumbray.
Here’s the set up: A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.
Peter Debruge of Variety says, “The movie’s razor-sharp visuals leave scratch marks on the back of your eyeballs, liable to burst back into your consciousness in subsequent dreams… Check your brain, and you’ll be just fine.”
Katie Rife at IndieWire wrote, “A pummeling psychedelic sci-fi freakout that one doesn’t watch so much as experience.
“‘Ash’ may not reinvent the sci-fi horror genre,” said Zachary Lee at RogerEbert.com, “But Flying Lotus knows when to subvert tropes and when to lean into them.”
From Glenn Garner at Deadline Hollywood Daily: “Lotus has found his Ripley in González, who definitely earns her ‘final girl’ stripes with this role, serving a beautifully terrified and impassioned performance, complete with a high-octane fight sequence or two and plenty of dark relevance.”
There are only two days left at SXSW and only a few horror movies left to screen, including: We Bury the Dead, Mermaid, and It Ends.