Movie · 2025 · Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller · 1h 30m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 0.4/10 (19.8K ratings)
She didn't come back to Earth alone.
Overview
After returning from her first space mission, astronaut Sam Walker is placed under NASA’s care at a high security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. However, when disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, she fears that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth
Ratings
Curator score: 0.4/10
IMDb: 4.8/10
Letterboxd: 2.21/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 37%
Metacritic: 40
TMDB: 6.2/10
Director
Jess Varley
Production
Fuller Media, The Wonder Company, Wild Atlantic Pictures
Cast
Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Miličević, Scarlett Holmes, Macy Gray, Reza Diako, Daniel Quirke, Daiana Madeira, Christine Abernathy, Ezrael MacTire, Erin Gill, Gareth Battersby, Aidan O'Sullivan, Alex Conlon, Hans Boller
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A promising sci-fi horror setup and a strong lead performance can’t overcome a film that, by most accounts, loses its grip as it goes. The early mystery and isolated-house paranoia sound intriguing, but the payoff is widely described as messy, overblown, and frustratingly undercooked.
Best for
Viewers who enjoy low-budget alien-paranoia setups
Fans of isolated-location thrillers with body-horror elements
Curious Kate Mara completists
Skip if
You want a smart, satisfying third act
You’re looking for polished, high-concept sci-fi horror
You’re easily frustrated by repetitive jump scares and vague plotting
Overview
The Astronaut has the bones of a very good genre movie: an astronaut returning from a damaged mission, a sealed-off house, and the unnerving possibility that something came back with her. That premise naturally invites dread, ambiguity, and a slow-burn sense of contamination, and the film seems to understand that at least in its opening stretch.
Worth noting
What keeps coming up, though, is a collapse in momentum. The movie appears to trade its best ideas for routine scare mechanics and a finale that goes from tense to cartoonish. Even viewers who liked the atmosphere tend to single out the sound design, imagery, and Kate Mara’s performance as the main reasons to stay engaged.
Bottom line
As a piece of sci-fi horror, it sounds more interesting in concept than in execution. If you’re drawn to alien-infection paranoia and can tolerate a shaky payoff, there may be enough craft to sample. For most viewers, though, this looks like a pass.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Roberts (2★) · 381 likes
At one point, Kate Mara blocks a sliding door by pushing a table up against it
elvisthealien (1★) · 253 likes
Damn, this was ass
allain♡ · 221 likes
It’s frustrating how a film with such promising and ambiguously executed opening sequence could falter so quickly quite like Varley’s The Astronaut did. What could’ve led down a path of either self-devolvement (Garland’s Annihilation) or self-discovery (Villeneuve’s Arrival) instead spirals into a paranoiac loop personified on its lead Sam (Kate Mara), whose return from her first space mission under questionable circumstances raised some warranted suspicions.
The deliberate choice to make everyone around her overly detached, particularly her father (Gen. William… more
Horror Syndrome (2.5★) · 194 likes
Someone had sex with E.T., but it's not who you expect!
Kevflix And Chill (1.5★) · 138 likes
Man, this was disappointing. Kate Mara’s spacecraft has some sort of incident upon re-entry causing NASA to place her in quarantine in a secluded modern mansion. It seems as though when she returned from space that she may or may not have brought something back with her. The film spends the first hour playing the “is it real or is it just in her head” game, but it’s just a boring slog of fake jump scares. Then the final act… more Man, this was disappointing. Kate Mara’s spacecraft has some sort of incident upon re-entry causing NASA to place her in quarantine in a secluded modern mansion. It seems as though when she returned from space that she may or may not have brought something back with her. The film spends the first hour playing the “is it real or is it just in her head” game, but it’s just a boring slog of fake jump scares. Then the final act… more
2014 · Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 29m · NR · Curator 6.5/10 (578.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, Night Flight Plus, Cineverse, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
For viewers who like uncertainty, escalating suspicion, and a small-scale premise that spirals out.