Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires, Ellora Torchia, John
Hollingworth, Mark Monero
Opening with a visual nod to the trippy 1969 TV series
The Owl Service and with early references to a woodland spirit
named Parnag Fegg (say that name quickly and it sounds a lot like Alan
Clarke's Penda's Fen), writer/director Ben Wheatley's
In the Earth promises some good old British folk-horror. What
an anti-climax then when the movie ultimately morphs into a generic
backwoods slasher garnished with some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.
Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wheatley's film posits a world ravaged
by a mystery virus. After spending months in isolation following the deaths
of his parents, scientist Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) arrives at a
research station on the outskirts of a giant forest. His plan is to join his
former colleague Olivia Wendle (Hailey Squires) in her experiments to
increase crop efficiency. To do so, he must endure a two day hike through
the vast woods, guided by park ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia).
It's not long before the pair run into trouble. After finding a discarded
tent that appears to belong to a family, they are attacked and knocked
unconscious by unseen assailants. Waking in a groggy state and with their
boots stolen, they continue hiking, coming across Zach (Reece Shearsmith), a hermit who lives in the woods and worships an entity he refers to as
"him".
Along with
Nina of the Woods
and
Gaia, In the Earth is the third 2021 film I've seen that employs
the notion that a forested area is drawing its protagonists to become "one
with nature", that the forest is alive like The Zone of Tarkovsky's
Stalker
or the contaminated area of Alex Garland's
Annihilation. None of the three movies manage to do anything interesting with this
curious concept, and Wheatley's film is the weakest of the lot.
Apparently Wheatley knocked out the script in two weeks and rushed into
production during a limited post-lockdown window last summer. And it shows.
This script really needs a few more runs through the word processor to find
a story worth telling. After setting the mood as its two protagonists
venture into the woods, it suddenly veers into torture porn territory with
the arrival of Shearsmith's Zach. With ill-fitting comic beats and bodily
trauma played for laughs, Wheatley seems to be aiming for a tone close to
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series, which just doesn't gel with the
folk-horror trappings.
As with his English civil-war folk-horror
A Field in England, Wheatley seems to once again run out of ideas in the final act of
In the Earth, when he loads up the FX bank of his editing software and pummels the
viewer with "psychedelic" visuals - i.e. rapid cutting and flashing strobe
lights. Heavy man! After the muted response to his bland
Rebecca
remake, Wheatley wanted to get back to his low-budget roots, but with each
new movie he makes, it seems the British auteur is moving further away from
the talent teased in Down Terrace and Kill List.
In the Earth is on Netflix UK/ROI
now.