One of the films that I considered nominating was Annihilation (2018). This science fiction horror was written by Alex Garland, and stars Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac. I considered this film because I am an avid horror movie buff and I saw this assignment as a challenge to find horror films that directly relate to some of the topics covered in this course.
Before settling on Annihilation, I first thought about some other Plant Ecology related horror movies including The Ruins (2008) and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), where as a form of self defense against the rapidly increasing human population, plants worldwide begin to produce an airborne neurotoxin that targets people. Alas, I can not recommend that movie as it is dreadfully bad.
Annihilation primarily relates to our course’s topics of managing invasive plants and organisms, biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. As such, the premise of this film revolves around “the shimmer”, a constantly expanding permeable dome-like enclosure from another world that is engulfing the land, and all organisms within it. The shimmer was introduced to an area in the southern United States by a meteorite. The protagonists, an all-female group of scientists, learn that the shimmer is mutating the DNA of species and causing multiple species to morphologically combine, such as plants that take human form, and alligator shark hybrids.
The shimmer causes habitat fragmentation for the areas around the growing enclosure, but also acts like an out-of-control non-indigenous invasive species that is all consuming. The modified species within it are also able to outcompete all those that enter.
In conclusion, I recommend this film to any biology students that find enjoyment in the horror genre. One thing is certain, if issues like habitat loss, biodiversity loss and invasive species were this freaky, humans would likely be working a lot faster to solve them.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 