A familiar premise isn’t always a bad thing when it comes to horror and science fiction, so long as it’s presented through a new point of view with its own identity. Such is the case with The Astronaut, a film with an admittedly unique perspective on the alien subgenre, but sadly takes too long to make its voice heard.
The film certainly has that single-location hook: Astronaut Sam Walker (Kate Mara) just returned from her first space mission and now must be put under NASA’s care for rehabilitation and testing. But as we see from the opening, Sam’s helmet was fully cracked and broken during her re-entry. She should’ve died. Sam is then put into a fancy, modern house in the middle of the woods, reminiscent of films like Ex Machina, as the film begins to unravel its mystery of what happened (or is happening) to Sam and what will become of her.
Even from this setup, it’s very clear that something is looming behind the scenes. Our protagonist believes that something extraterrestrial has followed her home, as she begins to experience disturbing visions and hallucinations. But with her father, General Harris (Laurence Fishburne) constantly monitoring her and her relationship with her husband (Gabriel Luna) and daughter kept at a distance, it’s hard to shake off the feeling that something else is going on.
With the script keeping the audience in step with Sam, we know just as much as she does about her situation, but because she is essentially quarantined the whole time, the film struggles in revealing new pieces of information as it goes along. Questions that Sam may have for her father are answered in a vague way or just not addressed at all, as she would normally shrug off her concerns with the usual “maybe I’m just tired” trope. It quickly becomes a repetitive game of withholding information from the audience until it’s time for the big reveal.
Once The Astronaut arrives at its third act, it does indeed drop a big twist, where the film finally unveils the truth about Sam. It’s a conceptually neat idea, and writer/director Jess Varley approaches it with much-appreciated sincerity. It’s just a shame that, like many other films that are built around their twists, the film has only a few minutes left and is about to end. Stories that revel in mystery generally have to play their cards carefully until it’s time to drop their “best card,” to maximize the story’s impact. While I do love the play itself, there’s a difference between the film playing its best card and the film playing its “only card.”
The Astronaut is a well-shot production that looks beautiful for its low budget, and Mara tries her best to carry the film on her shoulders, along with an invasive musical score by Jacques Brautbar that constantly tries to immerse us in the film’s suspense. Varley even delivers a couple creepy moments that involve wind (and the sudden lack of) and sound. But with its only dramatically interesting story beat being its twist, which is reserved for the ending, there’s not much else going on other than watching things going bump in the night.
Grade: C
This review is from the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival. The Astronaut is currently seeing U.S. distribution.
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