THE ASTRONAUT (2025)

3 stars

Signature Entertainment. Digital 22nd September. DVD and Blu ray 6th October

Open sea. Motorboats speed through the water as a helicopter hovers overhead – the music infers something thrilling. Captain Sam Walker (Kate Mara) is being picked from her landed space capsule. Water is seeping in and alarmingly there is large hole in the side of craft. She is unconscious and, more worrying, the visor on her helmet is smashed open.

She awakens later in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV. She is surprised to see a pen floating – did she imagine it? The first indication that things might not be right after her space mission. Precautions are being taken, as NASA isn’t sure what happened to her. General William Harris (Laurence Fishburne) is her adoptive father and clearly high up in the organisation, as he has pulled some strings and arranged for her to be moved to a flashy remote house in Virginia (though actually shot in Ireland) for her recovery out of the spotlight, away from any media frenzy.

She will be under observation and regularly tested – though much of the time she is left to her own devices. She is suddenly hit with severe ringing – all part of her reacclimatising to being back on earth apparently… but it keeps occurring and also brings on visions, plus Sam starts to think she is not alone as odd things start to happen. Is there someone or something in the house with her? Has she brought something back from space? What is the strange bruising on her body?

Mara is fine as the stressed out astronaut capturing the growing paranoia and fear and Fishburne is his usual dependable presence. Writer/director Jess Varley builds the tension in her feature film debut (she is better known as an actress) leading to a fast moving finale. A touch of QUATERMASS, XTRO and even ET about it. The director makes good use of the house and its surroundings.

Steve Kirkham