Three friends, Vic (Edy Modica), Maddie (Pauline Chalamet), and her fiancé Ryan (James Morosini), visit their college pal, Allen (Jermaine Fowler), now a hot up-and-coming science fiction writer. As Allen welcomes his old buddies to his epic new Los Angeles mansion, this reunion, while all smiles and hugs on the surface, hides a seething cauldron of sordid interpersonal histories, long-simmering rivalries, distrust, jealousy, and much more. Maybe Maddie is in love with Allen, why does Ryan pick apart every word Allen says, maybe Allen hasn’t even written a single word of his high-priced novel. And then things get out of hand.
Terrestrial director Steve Pink (director of the Hot Tubs Time Machine, co-writer of High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank) shoots all of this like a throwback paranoid thriller. The camera slowly pushes in on Allen’s palatial estate from a distance, or closes in on a face with a smile that’s just a touch too wide to be authentic. Add an eerie sonic landscape, and it’s clear everyone is hiding all sorts of secrets from everyone else and will go to great lengths to keep things under wraps.
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That’s the real joy of Terrestrial, watching the situation escalate until it boils over into chaos. The script from first-time feature writers Connor Diedrich and Samuel Johnson continually peels back layers and ratchets things up with each reveal. Just when it appears you have a handle on the situation and all the twisted histories, a shift in perspective to SJ Purcell (Brendan Hunt), Allen’s favorite writer, tears things open even further.
While there are sci-fi trappings around, Terrestrial never truly falls into the genre. Scenes from a cheesy ‘90s adaptation of Purcell’s most famous book punctuate the film, highlighting thematic and narrative parallels. Allen has visions of alien encounters, but those are more symptoms indicative of a crumbling mental state. Science fiction heads will have fun with all the nods and asides, but though it’s sci-fi adjacent for sure, it’s a thriller to the core.[Related Reading: 'Hot Tub Time Machine 2' Movie Review]
The cast is strong across the board, though Fowler is the standout. He ping-pongs all over the place as Allen, charming and personable in one moment, unsettling and leaving you wondering what he’s capable of the next. Is he unravelling from all the pressure of publishing his novel, or is he concealing something much darker and more sinister? For as uncontrolled as the character is, Fowler has a deft, steady hand on the controls as an actor as Allen spirals.
Terrestrial offers up a fun, twisty thriller, deftly executed by Pink, who balances multiple disparate tones with an even hand, and anchored by a strong, strange performance from Fowler. It’s a taut, energetic tale propelled by shifting perspectives and well-planted reveals.
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