A biologist joins an expedition into the Shimmer to find out what happened to her husband. The Shimmer is a mysterious quarantined zone where the laws of biology are rewriting themselves. Alex Garland uses the conventions of science fiction horror to explore self-destruction, identity and how little we can know ourselves.
Annihilation is a 2018 science fiction, horror and drama film directed by Alex Garland. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 psychology and 2 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Blade Runner uses several of the same techniques.
Keeping it unclear what is real and what is imagined in the film's world. You end up as unsure as the main character.
How this film uses it
The Shimmer refracts everything, meaning it bends and scrambles radio signals, DNA and memory. The film is also told as a story inside a story. That setup suggests even Lena's account of events has been bent too far to be accurate.
Where to see it
The revelation that Lena may not have returned unchanged, or may not have returned at all. It makes you doubt everything she has told you while looking back.
Designing a science fiction world around real science and believable extensions of today's technology and cities. The physics creates the drama, and the future feels connected to the present.
How this film uses it
The film explains how the Shimmer works through refraction: light, radio waves and DNA all bend. As cliche as it sounds, giving scientific words to something that can't be explained makes it more frightening.
Where to see it
The biologist's explanation of the Shimmer as a prism refracting everything inside it. The film's images and story are then organized around that comparison.
Showing the human body being changed, damaged or falling apart. The horror works because you imagine it happening to your own body, and it often stands for mental suffering.
How this film uses it
The Shimmer produces mutations that are grotesque and also beautiful: flowers growing from human shapes, a bear that speaks in its victim's voice. Watching living things change fills you with wonder and dread at the same time.
Where to see it
The humanoid plant forms in the abandoned village. They are human shapes in the poses of plants. The image is horrifying, and it also plays like a lament for the dead.
Making the fear come from being unable to know what is real. The character can't trust their own records, memories or senses, and that is scarier than any physical threat.
How this film uses it
In the lighthouse climax, Lena faces a being she can't understand, talk to or fight. The only thing she can do with it is mirror it. Not being able to understand is itself the horror.
Where to see it
The doppelgänger (exact double) sequence in the lighthouse. The creature copies Lena's every movement, and she comes face to face with a self she can't know.
Giving specific colors to characters, groups or ideas and sticking to them through the film. Each time a color appears, it tells you something beyond what is shown.
How this film uses it
The Shimmer's border is an iridescent rainbow, and the film's colors get more and more saturated and impossible. Both show how the zone changes matter. The film uses the same colors for beauty and for horror.
Where to see it
The Shimmer's boundary. The light bends into a soap-bubble shimmer, and it is the most beautiful and most threatening image in the film.
Questions
Annihilation: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Annihilation use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Annihilation (2018): Unreliable Reality, Hard Science Fiction Aesthetics, Body Horror, Epistemic Horror and Color Symbolism.
Who directed Annihilation?
Alex Garland directed Annihilation, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Ex Machina (2014), Men (2022), Civil War (2024), Warfare (2025).
What films are similar to Annihilation?
Films that share techniques with Annihilation include Blade Runner (1982), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Arrival (2016), Perfect Blue (1997).
