Natalie Portman stars in the teaser trailer for Annihilation, director Alex Garland's adaptation of the acclaimed 2014 novel by New Weird author Jeff VanderMeer, the first part of his Southern Reach Trilogy.

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The collection centers on the mysterious and sudden appearance of an uninhabited landscape known as Area X, and judging from this first footage, it's clear the movie won't pull its punches with the strange encounters found in the dangerous, uncharted territory.

Here's the synopsis of the novel:

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

Directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Annihilation stars Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson. The film arrives Feb. 23, 2018.