William Boyd's THE TRENCH (1999)

A stage director would not have to change
A thing about this setting, tight and dark.
There's noncom Daniel Craig cast with a range
Of fresh young faces, soon to make their mark
Onscreen. No gore is spared and that despite
A dearth of action. This could be a play,
A psychodrama. Tension in the night

Is rooted in the characters. Some may
Think Blackadder Goes Forth is on repeat,
If minus all the laughs that World War One

Supplied in such abundance. Ere they greet

Their fated doom, the standard things are done,

Back stories told, surprise explosions, and

A shot or two of green and pleasant land.

Alex Garland's ANNIHILATION (2018)

If he was never Kane, then what was he
A man asks towards the end. And what was this?
A riff more than an adaptation, we
Who've read the book will notice. We may miss
The strangling fruit, but who could bring a thing
Like that to cinema? Instead, refract
The story through your prism, Garland, bring
A clarity to what was so abstract.
A tour through Ballard more than Vandermeer,
Perhaps, is what we're given. This is fine!
Tarkovskyan its weirdness, and its fear.
It's left the lighthouse keeper on the vine
And made a film that tells a story more
Through sight and sound (especially its score!)