This review contains spoilers.
The biologist’s willpower, or lack thereof, also figures into the hypnosis subplot. The psychologist, an older woman who commands the team, places her three companions under hypnosis to endure the rigorous crossing into Area X. But after the biologist, leaning too close to the funguslike script, accidentally inhales a shower of spores expelled from one of the flowers, she becomes impervious to the psychologist’s powers of suggestion and learns that she and her fellows are being programmed to enact a secret agenda on behalf of the Southern Reach, the organization that administers the exploration and study of Area X. These developments turn the biologist into the most unreliable of narrators: Has she stumbled onto a government conspiracy, or has she begun to hallucinate after being infected by the weird growth in the tunnel? Even after her suspicions are confirmed, the idea that she may still be acting on the psychologist’s commands heightens the suspense.
Directed by Alex Garland. R, 115 min.
