Review: In the Earth (2021)
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires
Written by: Ben Wheatley
Music by: Clint Mansell
Country: United Kingdom & United States
Available on: DVD (Decal)
IMDb
Ben Wheatley is one of the more interesting directors working in semi-big-budget horror these days. His debut feature in the genre, Kill List (2011), was an absolute nut-kick of tense folk horror that set the bar high on what he might accomplish in the future. I wouldn’t say he’s ascended to those heights since then, but his genre follow-ups — Sightseers (2012), A Field in England (2013), and High-Rise (2015) — have all offered something unique to chew on, even if it didn’t always taste great. Like Kill List, In the Earth again flirts with the occult, but with some Lovecraft-on-shrooms overtones.
This flick takes place in a virus-plagued version of England, though the precise nature of the outbreak and its effects aren’t detailed (nor is the disease particularly important to the story, which was a baffling decision). Two scientists at an outpost in a remote forest are sent to find one of their missing colleagues who’s been studying how fungi and their root networks might help humans more efficiently cultivate food. It turns out that what this MIA scientist was actually studying was how to use the various sounds and sights of the forest to communicate with an ancient pagan entity, Parnag Fegg. The two are dragged into a screwy, hallucinogenic web of nature worship gone wild. The setup provides Wheatley opportunity to get trippy, further exploring the aural and visual chicanery he fell in love with in A Field in England.
Nick Gillespie’s cinematography, Clint Mansell’s score, and Rob Entwistle’s sound design fuck around to create a truly disorienting — and frankly irritating, at times — cacophony that accomplishes its goal of keeping the audience on edge. It all looks and sounds astonishing, even as it seems to be collaborating to distract you from a story that doesn’t really get anywhere. All of the acting is impressive, with a particularly unnerving, shaggy performance from Reece Shearsmith as the prime nutter — although I kept thinking Wheatley had cast Taika Waititi. But all of this superb accoutrement feels a bit wasted on a story that’s too low-key for its own good. The fascinating intersection between science and nature is severely under-nurtured and the mini-cult that’s been erected around Fegg is standard-issue white-robed, bundled-sticked malarkey.
The film’s tension is spent in a very well-executed sequence in the middle that fully leverages its cavorting with light and noise. After that, it’s a lot of waiting around in vain for things to get savage and strange when Fegg shows up on the scene. Parnag Fegg never comes, and neither does the rest. In the Earth feels like a movie made by gifted craftspeople who were bored, a fancy shell with no core, put together by artists very good at their respective arts.
Overall rating: 6 out of 10
