Cosmic Horror and the Southern Reach Universe
A look into VanderMeer’s trilogy, the film adaptation based on the first novel, and the genre that investigates the unknowable mysteries of the universe.
As soon as I saw the trailer for Annihilation, an upcoming new science-fiction film, I immediately knew I’d be a fan. The tone, style, genre and themes it seemed to explore have always been fascinating to me. A branch of science-fiction in which things can’t quite be explained, described or understood by the fictional world’s inhabitants or the reader alike. As the stories unfold and we try to understand what’s going on, it’s quickly apparent that it can’t be done. Like trying to teach ants to learn algebra.
The film is based on the Southern Reach trilogy of books by Jeff VanderMeer. They’re set in a world in which a small area of the USA has been transformed into Area X, after it is suddenly and mysteriously absorbed and taken over by something unknowable and strange, allowing nature to reclaim the land as its own, creating an intangible and invisible border that blocks entrance and exit except through a strange doorway.
The characters of the novels are unable to fully understand large elements of Area X. It’s origins, creations and effects are a mystery to the people who observe and experience them, even after decades of study by the groups responsible for investigating. The organisations known as Southern Reach and Central, through efforts to gain any usable information, keep sending in expeditions to investigate only to have the individuals from these teams come back as broken and former shells of themselves, if indeed they return home at all, having found no answers to the mysteries from the other side of the border. None of the various experts can decipher anything useful about Area X or come close to understanding anything about it. Readers of the books are able to conclude fairly early on in the series that the characters have come into contact with something that is beyond them. They’ve been faced with a higher being, an otherworldly consciousness, another type of intelligence. If any of those can even be accurate enough descriptions for whatever the nature of Area X truly is.
The film adaptation of the first book, written and directed by Alex Garland, may shift slightly from the original story but it keeps close to the tone and feeling of the books. I would have put Annihilation into the category of eerie science-fiction until I later came across the arguably more accurate definition, cosmic horror. I only recently discovered the term stumbling around on YouTube when I found a video titled, Why Cosmic Horror is Hard to Make uploaded by Screened. Amongst other things, the video explores why the genre is perhaps less widespread on the screen than other genres.
I’ve become aware that cosmic horror and eerie science-fiction is a fairly niche genre of fiction. You don’t see too many of these films take up much room in the cinemas. Nobody I know quite likes the books and film as much as I do. I’m not quite sure why cosmic horror and the Southern Reach trilogy appeal to me specifically as I’m not at all a fan of other horror genres which bear close resemblance. I suspect it’s an interest in the unknown and the unknowable. I like the investigation into what we as human beings have the ability to comprehend. I’ve always enjoyed deep and complex conversation topics about the infinite possibilities of the universe and would guess that people who enjoy discussing these big questions would be much more likely to have an interest in the Southern Reach universe.
I read the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy after seeing the trailer and was hooked. I watched the film when it finally got released on Netflix and found it an eerie and interesting companion to VanderMeer’s work. I proceeded to read the second two books in the trilogy: Authority and Acceptance with an eagerness to find out more of the lore (and to potentially find out some answers). I am definitely a Southern Reach fan.
I enjoy stories that explore themes that we’re unable to understand fully because of the limitations of the human mind. I think they give the universe a sense intrigue and mystery that no other genre of fiction explores in so much detail. The texts that explore the supernatural might seem closely related but the science-fiction elements of cosmic horror and similar genres gives it’s stories a credible feeling of reality that supernatural elements to stories just aren’t able to. The idea that there is an underlying scientific explanation for all that happens in the Southern Reach universe but no matter how hard we try we just aren’t able to ever comprehend any of it with our current level of human intelligence significantly dials up the intrigue. An audience is more invested as it’s something we believe could potentially happen. The answers to the mysteries are there, we just can’t understand them. This is what VanderMeer and the makers of the Annihilation film adaptation understand so well and the result of their work is not only enjoyable but incredibly thoughtful. These are works that you keep coming back to, that you develop theories for, that make you think about the mysteries of the infinite cosmos.
