If you’re not excited about Annihilation, you should be. Not only does it mark writer/director Alex Garland’s follow-up to his stellar directorial debut Ex Machina, but its source material is a rich, terrifying piece of enviro-horror fiction that’s ripe for a feature film adaptation given the right director. And boy is Garland the perfect guy to bring author Jeff Vandermeer’s book to the big screen, with a series of new Annihilation set photos making the film that much more enticing.

The story of Annihilation follows the expedition of four women who are sent into the mysterious “Area X”, a portion of land in the United States that has been secretly quarantined due to abnormal activity. They are the twelfth expedition sent into Area X on behalf of the mysterious Southern Reach organization. The second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as the members turned on one another, and the eleventh expedition returned as shells of their former selves, all dying of cancer shortly after coming back.

Garland assembled a top-notch cast here led by Natalie Portman, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson (Creed), Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), and Oscar Isaac rounding out the ensemble. As filming is starting to wrap up, the cast members and cinematographer Rob Hardy—who also shot Ex Machina—have shared a number of set photos teasing some absolutely gorgeous locations. But as readers of Vandermeer’s book know too well, the beautiful façade of Area X can be deceiving.

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Check out a round up of some of the set photos below (h/t to The Film Stage), and if you haven’t read Annihilation—which is the first in a trilogy—I highly recommend picking it up and adding it to your summer reading list. The film is expected to be released sometime in 2017.

 

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