Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth Is the First Great Horror Movie of 2021 – Gizmodo

In the Earths Zac (Reece Shearsmith) lurks in the mist.Image: Sundance Film Festivalio9 ReviewsReviews and critical analyses of fan-favorite movies, TV shows, comics, books, and more.

Made during a pandemic, with a fictional pandemic slithering around a story that taps into both the spiritual powers of nature and the mental effects of isolation, In the Earth uniquely captures the mood weve been clawing our way through for nearly a year now. Its freaky, but it feels alarmingly relatable too.

Ben Wheatleys (High-Rise) slick Netflix production Rebecca might have been a misfire, but the writer-director is back on more familiar turf with In the Earth, which has tendrils of his earlier films (especially Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England) curling around its DNA. That said, this is very much its own thing, and its the kind of movie youre better off watching without knowing the twists its plot is going to take.

In the Earth begins as Martin (Joel Fry) arrives at a rural lodge thats the park-services HQ for the surrounding land; one of his scientific colleagues, whos been doing field research for an extended period, has stopped checking in from her post deep in the forest, and hes there to pay her a visit. At the lodge, there are all-too-familiar protocols on displayface masks, hand sanitizer stations, awkward jokes about how its nice to see an unfamiliar face after so long, and even a disinfectant spray-down and medical check for Martin. We dont get a lot of details, but theres...something plague-like and covid-y out there thats shifted everyones definition of normal around, and a couple of people died in the village.

As Martin prepares for the multi-day trek to reach the camp where Dr. Wendell (Hayley Squires) has been staying, Wheatley telegraphs the malevolence ahead in a way that escapes Martins notice, but not ours. Theres the horror go-to that cell phones dont work in the wilderness, but also some casual remarks from others at the lodge (People get a bit funny in the woods) and, notably, a print that nobody can specifically remember hanging that illustrates a local folktale, sort of a forest spirit-boogeyman amalgamation called Parnag Fegg.

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None of this concerns Martinhes more unsettled by being around other people after months in pandemic isolationand it definitely doesnt concern the matter-of-fact Alma (Ellora Torchia), whos been tasked with guiding Martin to Dr. Wendells camp. In the woods, which are beautiful without feeling entirely welcoming, the omens begin to further pile up: an abandoned tent with childrens toys and, very casually, a picture book with a witch on it; a food wrapper thats out of place; and signs from the ecosystem that feel like warnings, including birds whose screams sound awfully human.

The payoff that In the Earth eventually yields is both tremendous and startling, as you might expect from a movie set almost entirely in a forest that also comes with a strobe warning for light-sensitive viewers at the outset. A stranger (Reece Shearsmith) whos been dwelling in the woods as a way to avoid the pandemic (among other reasons) approaches Martin and Alma to offer assistance and ends up complicating things. Eventually, the two outsiders begin to realize that the mycorrhizal network that Dr. Wendells been studyingthe brain-like connection between the trees and other plants in the forestmay be operating in a way that they werent expecting. Similarly, most of the characters are not what they appear to be at first, an element that adds suspense and dread thats helped along by strong performancesespecially Fry as the increasingly freaked-out Martin.

Movies like Annihilation and Hereditary might come to mind while watching In the Earth, which manages to blend folk horror and eco-horror (and, in certain moments, body horror and avant-garde cinema) in a way that resonates with our own world. Covid-19 has at times felt like part of some grander revenge plan that natures been waiting to spring on humanity for some time, and In the Earths exploration of just how aware nature really is couldnt feel more timely, or more terrifying.

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Ben Wheatley's In the Earth Is the First Great Horror Movie of 2021 - Gizmodo