IN THE EARTH
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Certificate 18
☆☆☆

IF you go down in the woods today, you really must hope you don’t get a surprise like the one in store for Dr Martin Lowery.

We meet the good Dr (Joel Fry) as he arrives at a checkpoint on the edge of a forest. We learn the nation is in the grip of a pandemic (the film was completed during lockdown) and Dr Lowery has arrived to help conduct some as yet unidentified experiments at a camp in the woods.

Ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia) is assigned to walk him for three days through the trees and deliver him to the remote outpost, where Dr Wendle (Hayley Squires) is waiting.

The usual horror film clues are scattered about the early part of the narrative – an ancient painting that suggests devilish woodland myths await anyone who enters, the only way in is on foot, the research base has not been in touch for a while…

The pair gamely set off – and stride into a mystery Scooby Doo would not feel out of place investigating. However, any gentle semblance to an intriguing bit of ghost hunting disappears when man-in-the-woods survi­valist Zack (Reece Shearsmith) pops up and things become tremendously unpleasant.

Woodland sprites, Mother Earth creation myths, horrible, teeth-gnashing injuries, drinks spiked with hallucinogenics, and the sense of a distant world too wrapped up in a pandemic to come to the rescue boil up a creeping sense of claustrophobia.

This is classic Ben Wheatley fare. He will always be a standout British director as his canon includes one of the greatest British crime films ever made, Down Terrace. He loves a hard-to-resolve story and intensely surreal approach.

Shearsmith also worked on Wheatley’s English Civil War drama A Field In England and, as with that yarn, the ingestion of magic mushrooms by key characters warps concepts of reality. Among the solid performances, his is the most gutsy character and he brings forth the fearful and chaotic delusions Zack is experiencing.

Wheatley’s efforts too often border on being a painful exper­ience. The gore is top-notch nasti­ness with raspingly unpleasant moments. On top this, your senses are bombarded with shrieking tones and flashing lights.

The story at first seems to be drawing on a smorgasbord of well-trodden tropes – Blair Witch, The Wicker Man, 28 Days Later, Salem’s Lot and The Evil Dead all feel present among the tree trunks.

It’s tantalising to think of this wholly original director taking up these themes and running with them. However, the film’s limitations are apparent when this early premise does not develop significantly.

Still – Wheatley’s work is a notch above the average when it comes to creating horror.

His next project is to work on the hilarious Hollywood franchise The Meg, about a giant sea creature. Bring it on – what a cinematic treat.