The first teaser for Annihilation gave us a glimpse at the disturbing unknown through a rainbow, oily membrane that had encircled a rural part of America. Now we have the full trailer for the terrifyingly trippy, environmental thriller.

Natalie Portman stars as a biologist leading a team into the restricted zone, on a journey to discover what put her husband (Oscar Issac) into a coma, and what drove others mad enough to murder each other. It’s the latest film from Alex Garland, the writer and director of the celebrated Ex Machina. Annihilation is based on a sci-fi novel by Jeff Vandermeer.

The full-length trailer sees the group – made up of Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Tompson, and Tuva Novotny – venture into Area X, the secretly quarantined U.S land. On the way, they encounter monsters unlike any normal species – a huge crocodile-shark hybrid, a gigantic, tiger-toothed bear and alien-like deer. Despite the horrifying creatures, the landscape is beautiful, extraterrestrial flowers bloom in rainbow colours and foliage grows over abandoned houses. 

“I’m still composing my thoughts and feelings about it,” Vandermeer wrote on Facebook about the film. “I can tell you it’s mind-blowing, surreal, extremely beautiful, extremely horrific, and it was so tense that our bodies felt sore and beat-up afterwards.”

Annihilation opens in cinemas on February 23 2018, and Netflix elsewhere.