Flying Lotus’ ‘Ash’ looks like a terrifying, sci-fi head trip

It has been more than seven years since Steven Ellison, better known by his musical nom de plume ‘Flying Lotus’, debuted his first feature film Kuso in 2017. Now Flying Lotus returns with its second feature film, Ashstarring Eiza González (3 Body problem) and Aaron Paul (Bad breaking), and in true Flying Lotus fashion, it looks like a bloody main trip.

Will be released in theaters in 2025, Ash follows the story of Riya (González), a woman who wakes up to find herself stranded on a mysterious planet. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her entire crew has been slaughtered and she has no memory of what happened. When a man named Brion (Paul) arrives to save her, both he and Riya will be forced to decide whether they can trust each other long enough to discover what happened and, more importantly, survive.

AshThe film’s trailer is short but promising, packed with short bursts of ominous imagery and shots of a surreal sci-fi planetscape, punctuated by bursts of light and unsettling sounds. Iko Uwais (The raid: redemption), Beulah Koale (Next goal wins), and Kate Elliott (Wentworth) stars alongside González and Paul in supporting roles.

Flying Lotus has been quite busy lately, having executive produced and scored the historical fantasy anime Yasuke in 2021, and also directed a segment for the horror anthology V/H/S/99 in 2022. With the recent announcement of his upcoming seventh studio album, 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for the EDM multi-hyphenate.