The Astronaut (2025) – Quarantined Nightmares and Post-Space Paranoia
Hello, movie lovers! After the shadowy stabs of Mantis, I'm rocketing into isolated dread with The Astronaut (2025), the feature debut from writer-director Jess Varley. Starring Kate Mara as a rattled space traveler, Laurence Fishburne as a stern overseer, and Gabriel Luna as a watchful ally, this 90-minute sci-fi horror thriller flips the astronaut script by zeroing in on the aftermath of re-entry. It's a taut, ambiguous chiller that hooked me with its rehab-room tension, earning a 6/10 from me—enjoyable for the thrills, but with sci-fi gaps that left me adrift. Let's suit up.
The Astronaut (2025) - Isolation Horror with an Otherworldly Itch
Most space flicks obsess over the launch and zero-G glamour, but The Astronaut smartly spotlights the unglamorous grind of coming home: mandatory quarantine, probing medical tests, and the psychological toll of isolation. Locked in a high-security NASA safe house, our hero grapples with "disturbing occurrences"—creaks in the night, flickering shadows, whispers from the vents—that blur the line between space-induced hallucinations and something sinister hitching a ride back. Is it PTSD from the void, or an extraterrestrial stowaway? The horror simmers in that uncertainty, building to pulse-quickening set pieces with claustrophobic chases and jumpy reveals. It's a lean thriller that nails the mental fragility of astronauts (drawing from real NASA protocols), laced with subtle dread rather than gore. The ambiguity keeps you guessing—imagination or invasion?—making it a fresh riff on cabin-fever classics like Event Horizon, though the extraterrestrial tease fizzles without payoff.
The Plot: Re-Entry into the Unknown
Astronaut Sam Walker (Kate Mara), fresh off her inaugural solo mission to relay mysterious signals into deep space (a nod to SETI-esque experiments), splashes down and is whisked to a fortified rehab facility under General Arthur Harlan's (Laurence Fishburne) watchful eye. Protocol demands isolation: psych evals, blood draws, and surveillance to monitor for "re-adaptation syndrome." But as glitches plague the house—doors locking unbidden, monitors glitching with static screams, and fleeting glimpses of elongated shadows—Sam spirals, confiding in her handler Dex (Gabriel Luna) while dodging Harlan's stonewalling. Flashbacks hint at the mission's eerie exchanges: outbound pings met with garbled replies that frayed her nerves up there. What starts as routine recovery erupts into a cat-and-mouse hunt within walls that feel alive, forcing Sam to question her sanity as the "something" closes in. No spoilers, but the finale's twist on what's followed her home lands with chilling ambiguity—real threat or fractured mind?
Performances That Ground the Gravity
Kate Mara anchors the film with a raw, unraveling intensity—her Sam's wide-eyed vulnerability and mounting fury capture the isolation's toll, making every twitch feel earned (a step up from her House of Cards poise). Laurence Fishburne brings authoritative gravitas as the General, his clipped commands masking bureaucratic chill, while Gabriel Luna's Dex adds a layer of conflicted empathy, his quiet support a lifeline in the lockdown. The trio's dynamic crackles in confined quarters, turning clinical interrogations into tense standoffs—though supporting techs feel thinly sketched.
A Debut That Orbits Familiar Stars
Varley's script, her directorial bow after shorts like The Box, leans on real astronaut lore (consulting ex-NASA folks for rehab authenticity) to ground the genre beats, evoking Moon's solitary madness with a dash of Alien isolation. Produced by the Wonder Company (behind A Quiet Place), it's a micro-budget mind-bender ($8M) that punches above via practical effects and single-location savvy—no vast cosmos, just one haunted house echoing the stars.
Ratings and Critical Reception
The Astronaut holds a middling 54% on Rotten Tomatoes (from 13 critics), with no Popcornmeter audience score yet—reviewers call it "taut but underdeveloped," praising Mara's "stellar unraveling" but knocking the "underbaked cosmic hook." IMDb fares worse at 4.7/10 (from 680 users), citing "predictable scares" amid the praise for atmosphere. It streamed quietly on Hulu post-Sundance whispers, pulling modest views but no box office splash—niche appeal for psych-horror heads.
A Minor Critique
The sci-fi core—Sam's mission to broadcast/receive interstellar signals—feels criminally underexplored; it's dropped lightly early on, leaving viewers piecing together the "why" without juicy details on the signals' weirdness or the experiment's stakes. A few more flashbacks could've orbited that plot hole without bloating the runtime.
A Solid Orbit for Space-Phobic Thrills
The Astronaut (2025) carves a unique niche in post-mission paranoia, with Mara's gripping descent and Varley's tight quarantine tension delivering solid scares and mind games. The horror-thriller blend works when it's whispering doubts, less so in its skimpy extraterrestrial lore—but that's the ambiguity's charm. At 6/10, I enjoyed the ride despite the weak warp drive; it's a quick, unsettling watch for fans of cerebral chills like Gravity meets The Thing. Rewatch? Maybe, to debate the ending.
What did you think of The Astronaut? Imagination or invader—real or reel? Drop your thoughts in the comments, and suggest a film for my next review—more space scares or earthly enigmas? If you enjoyed this, like, follow, and share to keep the signals strong. Thanks for reading—see you at the movies!
