Skip to content
Annihilation poster
BrowseAI · unconfirmed

Annihilation(2018)

2018 · Alex Garland · 115 min

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Science Fiction · Horror

6.59.7k votes

TMDB score

4/5

Intensity

3/5

Gore

4/5

Stays with you

How scary is Annihilation?

There's a dreamlike, unsettling calm to most of this movie, like something is wrong with the world but you can't quite name it. The dread builds slowly through strange, beautiful, wrong-looking environments rather than through shocks or chases, and then it suddenly cuts to moments of real body horror that hit hard because you weren't braced for them. It leans more into existential unease and confusion about identity and change than physical danger, though a couple of scenes are brutal and hard to watch. This is for people who like their horror strange, thoughtful, and a little sad rather than fast or fun.

On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Annihilation rates psychological 5/5, visceral 3/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.

  • Psychological: 5 of 5
  • Visceral: 3 of 5
  • Gore: 3 of 5
  • Lingering: 4 of 5
  • Intensity: 4 of 5

Slow burn vs Jump scares: 10 of 100 — leans Slow burn

Supernatural vs Real-world: 30 of 100 — leans Supernatural

Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 70 of 100 — leans Disturbing

Intensity over runtime

Shape only — no events
Reveal pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.

A slow, dreamlike drift into unease that gathers steam with sporadic jolts before building to a hallucinatory, intense final stretch.

Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 4.

Watched it? Sign in to confirm whether this profile fits.