The film has just been released to Netflix in the UK, after bypassing cinemas altogether in every territory apart from the USA.
Speaking ahead of its US theatrical run, Natalie Portman revealed that the cast weren’t shown the horrifying monster until they were filming a take.
The result was real, genuine fear.
“That was definitely funny,” she told Collider.
“We knew of course that in the scene this creature comes out and starts attacking us but I don’t think we were aware that there was going to be… Sometimes it’s CGI’d later.
“We hadn’t seen the practical thing yet, and this thing jumped out at us, and we were like ‘aaah!’
“Not necessarily the tough reaction we were supposed to have!”
Annihilation is a complex movie that reportedly skipped standard cinema distribution because studio bosses were worried it would flop.
Director Alex Garland revealed that bosses wanted various elements to be changed – and he altered nothing.
“Broadly speaking, he said the last third was too weird,” said Garland of an exec.
“The dance sequence was too long. ‘Can you make the lead character more relatable by removing some self-destructive behaviour?’ I couldn’t, as it would change the reason the film existed.
“The dance sequence is fundamental, so to make it into, literally, a punch-up would strip out all meaning.”
Annihilation is out now on Netflix.