The visual depiction of the Shimmer and all the horrors contained within carries the same sense of wonder and intrigue as an alien planet, but by distorting the real world, it becomes infinitely more horrifying. Taking cues from movies like The Thing and The Matrix, there are familiar themes here: the group of paranoid scientists pushed to the edge of sanity by an alien force, the suspicion that an ally has been replaced by a doppelgänger, the philosophical debate over the definition of "real" and how much the term actually matters. Post-2018, the first images that spring to mind are now Lena leading her team of scientists into the unknown, and the chilling shot of her shimmering eyes from Annihilation's bleak ending.
Author: Craig Elvy
Published at: 2026-01-28 23:33:19
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