05/07/2021 - Ben Wheatley’s film takes us to the heart of the earth where sounds and colours are so dazzling, they give rise to a veritable mystical experience

Buoyed by one of the most sophisticated and intriguing soundtracks, created by the genius composer Clint Mansell, In the Earth [+see also:
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film profile] - which is screening in the International Competition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) following its premiere at Sundance - unfolds without fanfare, sometimes playing with purest abstraction. Between pagan mysticism and lysergic voyages worthy of a Goa trance party, the latest film by British director Ben Wheatley probes what it is Mother Earth hides in her depths. What if the powers she possesses deep down, which mankind stopped caring for a very long time ago, were capable of overturning our understanding of the universe?

After a very short introduction - we meet one of the film’s protagonists, Martin, a scientist whom we won’t learn much about until the very end, in an improvised laboratory where a group of his colleagues are working on a vaccine to counter a potent virus afflicting the whole world - the films straight away transports us to the heart of a mysterious forest which will act as the backdrop for the entire story. Accompanying Martin on his scientific expedition deep in a forest which is home, we immediately realise, to strange and troubling presences, is a guide called Alma who will get him out of trouble on more than one occasion and who we also don’t know a great deal about. As the two protagonists gradually lose strength and reason, nature slowly begins to awaken, growing ever louder, and eventually becoming a powerful vibration which penetrates Martin and Alma’s bodies to their core. Whilst in the forest, and after being set upon by who knows what kind of presence while sleeping in their tents, the two of them cross paths with a mysterious hermit who offers them help. As in any self-respecting horror film, Martin and Alma accept his offer (albeit with some reservations), though it turns out his motives aren’t entirely altruistic. But, despite the macabre rituals this curious character subjects them to, his intentions remain ambiguous, as if evil weren’t his ultimate objective.

Guided by a greater power, whose laws are set down in an ancient text, the peculiar recluse turns out to be the ex-husband of a scientist named Olivia who Martin must help with her research into mycorrhiza and with whom he has previously had a romantic relationship. She, too, has made her home in the thick of the woods and they find her unexpectedly after escaping from the hermitage where they were being held captive. Olivia immediately comes across as a complex and ambiguous character, reminiscent of protagonists hailing from classic films of the horror genre, such as Jessica Harper in Dario Argento’s Suspiria. Having distanced herself from scientific research proper so that she, too, can follow the path towards the heart of the earth, which potentially holds the secret to humanity’s salvation, Olivia experiments with sounds and with a more intense connection with nature. Oscillating between incredulity and an instinct for survival, Martin and Alma allow themselves to be transported out of this world, as man has imagined it, so as to become one with the sounds, waves, colours and spores inhabiting the forest. It’s a hallucinatory but also a highly revealing journey which makes us think about what we call “reality”, and, ultimately, a somewhat mystical voyage where horror turns into pure wonderment.

In the Earth is produced by Rook Films and Neon, with international sales in the hands of Protagonist Pictures.

(Translated from Italian)