SETTLERS: A Martian Nightmare

Science fiction has a long history of being quiet. Contemplative, unnerving examinations of human nature are as commonplace in the genre as shoot ‘em up space battles, even if they aren’t as easy to sell. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina, and many episodes of The Twilight Zone all rely on the distance gained by an extraordinary setting to pick at things uncomfortably close to the core of all of us, which is precisely the kind of science fiction Settlers aspires to be.

If you aren’t expecting a dirge, this kind of movie can turn you off, no matter how great the story. Like so many of its ilk, it is deliberately paced, its thrills more aching than acute, and it’ll require you to be in a certain mood (and a certain level of alertness) to fully engage. In other words, it expects a bit more from you as a viewer, and in turn the bar is set a bit higher for the film itself.

Unfortunately Settlers doesn’t quite reach its lofty goals, setting the pressure on an isolated family in a Mars settlement a little too low and keeping what’s churning unspoken between them a little too silent, but the ideas it circles around instills such a palpable sense of dread that it keeps you planted in your seat.

Growing Up Martian

Instead of following the adults struggling to make it on the rundown farm, Settlers flows through a young girl, Remmy, who seems to know no other life. When she asks her parents about Earth her eyes glitter despite their tepid answers, the same as they glitter at their scrawny pigs, their wilting plants, and her tired parents. One senses the inevitable fall, that reality will eventually knock out her childhood enthusiasm, as it does for all of us, but with a much more precipitous drop for her.

The weariness of her parents, played with remarkable reserve by Sofia Boutella and Jonny Lee Miller, gives off a bit of a Room vibe: these are caring parents in the middle of a desperate situation, their love being expressed through the sheer effort of maintaining their daughter’s innocence for as long as they can. This being the story of their child, we don’t get to know them very well, and while that distance can make some of their decisions baffling, Boutella and Miller handle their inevitable failures with understandable tragedy.

The other shoe drops when a stranger, Jerry (Ismael Cruz Córdova), shows up to take back the failing farm. Turns out the family might not be there by rights, and the history he brings with him is what unravels Remmy’s world.

With much of the film relying on the quiet but observant child caught up in things far beyond her control, having The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince play Remmy for most of the runtime is a godsend. The young actor is no ham; she’s sincere, bright when unworried and drawn in when on alert. 

Unfortunately the poor kid is on alert through most of the movie, and with the guidance by first-time writer and director Wyatt Rockefeller, her awakening to the nightmare around her takes the viewer on a steady, painful descent, but one without a clear place to land.

Settlers relies more on general unease than any one clear evil Remmy is discovering, and while the tension sustains the movie through the early going, the latter section feels the drag of not having a thing to truly dread. What Rockefeller comes up with as a brutal topper makes sense, but it feels like a turn taken too late and too sharply, and quite frankly it’s an uninspired and unwelcome choice. Luckily the movie recovers before the ending and returns to the more generalized horror of the situation, and the sick taste weakens upon reflection.

A Stellar Display of Craft

If Rockefeller proves unsteady with the story, none of that is present in the way he steered the production of the film, which shows a keen eye for what to focus on and where to cut corners. It’s clear by looking at the finished product that he was working on a modest but not extravagant budget, and hard decisions about what could be pulled off within this fantastic world had to be made.

For moody science fiction like this, Rockefeller was right to focus on a handful of sets, the cast, and a few specific bits of detail that fill out the world. This all starts from conception, with the story taking place within a desolate, easily constructible farm and featuring a cast kept extremely small (there’s really only four characters in the entire movie), making for a world filled out just enough to look striking under the careful eye of cinematographer Willie Nel.

The flair he went for lands on the almost-fifth character, a robot discovered partway through the movie and who Remmy affectionately names Steve. An inscrutable little guy, Steve is either a passive terraformer going about his business or the friend Remmy imagines him to be, his boxy shell and dead center “eye” giving away nothing. He is a masterfully designed addition, at once unassuming and foreign, and he injects a classic science fiction wildcard element to the story.

It’s this world, a perfect slice of paranoia-inducing sci-fi, that lifts Settlers past its rough story elements and marks Rockefeller as a filmmaker to watch.

Conclusion: Settlers

Settlers is a classic bit of moody science fiction with great performances, but a lack of focus robs it of the striking ending the rest of the film deserves. The production design is immaculate and captured in a way that builds dread with every passing second, making this the uncomfortable sit fans of this particular kind of movie will enjoy pondering with.

What did you think of Settlers? Do you think it stuck the landing? Let us know in the comments!

Settlers will open in the US in select theaters and on-demand on July 23rd and in the UK on July 30th.

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