In the Earth Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out In the Earth opens in theaters on April 16. Read more on IGN's policy on movie reviews in light of COVID-19 here. IGN strongly encourages anyone considering going to a movie theater during the COVID-19 pandemic to check their local public health and safety guidelines before buying a ticket. [poilib element="accentDivider"] After more than a year of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic keeping many of us trapped indoors for most of the time, director Ben Wheatley offers viewers a chance to engage with the natural world with In The Earth. Trouble is, the natural world engages right back and reminds us that there are forces out there that we can’t control or understand, no matter our motives. While clearly more focused on providing a visceral experience than an emotional one, Wheatley’s return to horror is a Kubrickian descent into madness that gets progressively more engrossing as it builds towards its bonkers finale. Appropriately, In the Earth is itself set during a pandemic that has taken a similar (probably worse) toll on the global population. Smartly, though, In the Earth doesn’t become bogged down in specifics, instead respecting that the viewer will bring their personal experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic to the table to fill in any blanks. Researcher Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) arrives at a national park to re-establish contact with his missing colleague, Olivia Wendle (Hayley Squires), who’s supposed to be out in the forest investigating the land’s uncommonly fertile soil. Park Ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia) accompanies Martin, and once the two set out after Olivia, the pandemic setting fades from text into more of a thematic framework for the movie to operate within. From the opening shots of the movie, it’s clear that Martin and Alma are walking into circumstances that they just aren’t prepared for and survival skills have little to do with why. The forest is controlled by Parnag Fegg, an eldritch force which has beckoned all the players to the woods for reasons that never become entirely clear. Martin and Alma don’t spend long in the woods before encountering a drifter, Zach (Reece Shearsmith), whose backwoods medical practices serve as a pretty big red flag that they pay little attention to. Martin and Alma’s relative ignorance towards Zach’s grim brand of hospitality belie maybe the only glaring issue that persists through In the Earth: Martin and Alma rarely seem to react proportionally to their increasingly horrifying and maddening circumstances. The weak protestations one character gives to having a gruesome procedure performed on themselves especially stand out, and that happens before Parnag Fegg really starts to go to work on their minds. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://ift.tt/3sacxSI] Fry and Torchia don’t have much chemistry to speak of, nor do their characters evolve much throughout. Torchia’s Alma at least provides a tether to common sense, challenging the questionable logic of other characters most of the time, but Fry’s Martin is downright boring, his backstory and personal reasons for going after Olivia only passingly mentioned and to no consequential end. Much more weight is given to the supporting characters, Zach and Olivia, and their opposing beliefs on how best to make contact with and please the spirit of the forest. Shearsmith’s Zach in particular is a rather charming antagonist, whose naked and selfless desire to serve Parnag Fegg provides the only emotional stakes in the movie. Hayley Squires’ Olivia is far more mercurial but, given the scientist’s role in the story only blossoms in the third act as the effects of Parnag Fegg become more severe, this helps with In the Earth’s march away from reality and into the cosmic. Of course, the spores that Parnag Fegg doses the characters with throughout the film are helping with that work, too. With characters that majoritively serve to comment on Parnag Fegg’s thematic relevance, it becomes increasingly important for that force to present in an engaging and entertaining way. Luckily, the psychedelic, disembodied power that rules the forest makes up for In the Earth’s lacking character work. These effects are subtle at first, with sound design playing an important role in setting a spooky tone early on as strange birds whose calls have echoed through the forest suddenly go dead silent. Once the spectacle of Parnag Fegg, and Olivia’s experimentations with it, take center stage, In the Earth is impossible to look away from. At first, the equipment Olivia has set up in the forest is used to a more grounded effect, with speakers and strobe lights providing a harsh interruption to In the Earth’s naturalistic leanings up to that point and amping up the tension while Zach hunts Martin and Alma. (Side note: viewers sensitive to light-based visual stimuli may want to take caution watching this movie.) There’s a lot to be said for ending strong, and In the Earth parses out its best, strangest material at an excellent pace. Once the characters decide to actively engage with Parnag Fegg, wow, things get exponentially weirder in the best way. Wheatley pulls out all the stops, with colorful, elemental montages effectively communicating power that the human mind can’t comprehend. Those harshly juxtaposed visuals, coupled with the monolithic keystone which Parnag Fegg’s influence seems to emanate from, evoke Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had to have been on Wheatley’s mind while crafting In the Earth. Dizzying camera moves and optical trickery in these moments do more to put you in the shoes of the character than any line of dialogue so that by the time these flashes have passed, Martin and Alma’s dire situation feels far more immediate than it has up to that point. Clint Mansell’s score compliments this kaleidoscopic insanity well, his electronic string arrangements giving the viewer’s senses no quarter and reinforcing the melding of the modern and natural worlds. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-most-controversial-horror-movies&captions=true"]

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