Assimilate is a 2019 horror/scifi film directed by John Murlowksi.
It follows teenagers Zach (Joel Courtney) and Randy (Calum Worthy) filming bodycam footage of their "podunk town" for a web series. A neighbor, Ms. Bisette, comments to them about strange bugs that have been popping up all over her garden, shortly before the audience sees mysterious spores rain down from above. One night, Zach and Randy hear Ms. Bisette scream, and rush into her house to find her hiding in her closet, terrified, saying that something bit her. They spot the culprit, an unknown fast, small animal, and chase it into the nearby woods in hopes of capturing it for rabies testing. It leaps into a cooler, which is bizarrely picked up and immediately driven away by the friendly local priest.
The next day, they show the footage to the sheriff's deputy, Josh, but he is unconvinced, assuming it's a photoshopped prank. The next time they see Ms. Bisette, she insists that the bite never happened, and creepily invites them both to her bedroom, which they decline. Peeping into her bedroom window, Zach and Randy see a man tied to her bed, only for their view to be interrupted by an eerie duplicate of the same person glaring at them from the window, who they run from. Their Childhood Friend Kayla (Andi Matichak) comes to them for help, saying that her father is acting extremely strange. Upon investigation, Zach discovers that he's apparently murdered Kayla's mother. Kayla sees the footage of her mangled mother and goes with her friends to get Josh, but when they return to the house, Kayla's mother is seemingly alive and well, though clearly not herself.
They set to work trying to get evidence of this terrifying phenomenon onto the internet, to alert the rest of the world before everyone is assimilated.
Assimilate contains examples of:
- Aliens Are Bastards: As mentioned below in Alien Invasion, the alien invaders dominate Earth for the sake of growing their population, disregarding the terror they spread.
- Alien Invasion: The aliens seem to have no goals other than complete domination of the Earth, raising their numbers by cloning and replacing as many people as possible.
- Apocalyptic Montage: The news sequence at the end of the film, showing that most of the world has already been taken over.
- Assimilation Plot: Not surprisingly. However, it is unclear whether or not the aliens actually share a Hive Mind kind of relationship, or if they're just cooperative parasites.
- Big Brother Instinct: Most of Kayla's motivation comes from protecting her little brother, Joey. Despite the fact that she abandons him several times.
- Bittersweet Ending: Zach, Kayla and Joey survive, but Randy and Josh are dead and the entire world is now under siege by aliens. A few comments appear on their Youtube video, showing that there are isolated human survivors all over the world.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The aliens arrive as spores, then coalesce into ant-like insects before they fuse together again to form fast-moving insectoids the size of a large rat. From there, they bite a human to steal DNA which they use to metamorphize into a clone of that person by way of fleshy coccoon.
- Bluff the Impostor: Near the climax of the film, Zach and Kayla discover that they can walk among the impostors by imitating their slow, dead-eyed march.
- Cassandra Truth: The main characters trying to convince deputy Josh that something is seriously wrong in their town. He does come to believe them, but it's too late.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Justified in that it's a small town with one cable company, which is sabotaged offscreen early on by the aliens.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Zach and Kayla
- Children Are Innocent: Joey's main role is to be cute and helpless.
- Creepy Child: A handful of clone children are scattered throughout the movie.
- Chekhov's Gun: The kids explicitly film the large internet service provider building which gives high speed internet to their small remote town and it becomes the site of the final battle to upload the footage of the invasion.
- Enemy Summoner: The impostors' most dangerous ability, an unearthly shriek that calls in swarms of other clones quickly.
- Face Stealer
- First Contact: Averted at the end, when the survivors realize that they're actually one of the last towns to be taken over.
- Found Footage Films: Lapses into this occasionally, showing things from the POV of the boys' body cameras, but it's more of a gimmick for certain scenes than a constant element of the film.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Newly-minted clones don't bother with clothing. No matter how much you wish they would.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Both Randy and Josh go out this way, one shortly after the other.
- Hell Is That Noise: The way clones screech when they're injured, or when they need to call for backup.
- Hope Spot: More than one.
- The kids reach Josh's trailer home and he believes them, but the pod people soon arrive en masse, overturn the trailer and take both Josh and Randy.
- Zach and Kayla upload their footage, but soon learn that their small town wasn't the first place invaded, it was one of the last.
- Hugh Mann: Alien clones can range from "slightly odd" to "violently offputting" depending on how good they've gotten at imitating humans.
- Human Aliens: Justified, since the aliens are shapeshifters.
- Insectoid Aliens: Their true/larval form, plus the 'ants'.
- Kill and Replace
- Metamorphosis Monster: From spores to tiny insects to arthropods the size of rats, and then finally almost-human clones, the aliens seem to go through a lot of phases in their life cycle.
- Monster Mouth: Clones can open their mouths much wider than a human can, unhinging their jaws like a snake to scream.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Calling the police on the body of Kayla's mother in a clothes hamper does not incriminate her impostor father, but it does paint a target on the main characters.
- Sinister Minister: The friendly local pastor becomes this upon being assimilated.
- Small Town Boredom
- Soulless Shell: Newly-formed clones seem to be this, unable to speak or act use tools, and mindlessly attacking until they've absorbed the memories of the person they're meant to replace.
- Starfish Aliens
- The End of the World as We Know It: The worst-case scenario if the protagonists don't get word out about the impostors. It's already well underway by the time they get in contact with the outside world.
- The Stoic: A common giveaway is that the clones underreact to emotional stimuli, never cry or laugh, and have a unsettling placid demeanor when interacting with humans.
- The Virus: Overlaps with Assimilation Plot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Though they mention trying to find Randy's mother, it's never shown what exactly happened to her.
- World of Silence: Assimilated townsfolk never seem to speak to each other, only when they're trying to imitate humans. When they believe they're alone with their own kind, they walk among each other in eerie silence.
- Would Hurt a Child: Assimilation isn't pretty, but children are far from exempt.
- You Have to Believe Me!
- Zerg Rush: The impostors' preferred method of attack.
