IN THE EARTH directed by Ben Wheatley (UK/USA, 2021)
How do make a horror movie during a full-blown pandemic? First, lockdown rules dictate that you must have a small, socially distanced cast. Second, the film has to be shot well away from urban ‘civilisation’.
Ben Wheatley achieves this with ‘In The Earth’, a movie that not only references a Covid-19 style global calamity but also uses the virus to tentatively explore the implications for the future of humanity.
The extent of its serious message is, however, mitigated by some folkloric mumbo jumbo surrounding a made up myth of a woodland monster (or process) that answers to the name of Parnag Fegg.
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Benjamin John Power has described this album as “A snapshot of a painful period”. The deaths of his father and beloved producer Andrew Weatherall cast a dark shadow over the recording. He may not have intended it as a soundtrack to the global lockdown but that’s exactly what it sounds like to me.
Up till now there has been plenty to celebrate in the movies of Christopher Nolan. With his redefining of Batman as The Dark Knight and visually striking films like Dunkirk, Interstellar and Inception he has established himself as a director whose films are made to be appreciated on the big screen. Streaming may provide the same information, but the spectacle is lost.
The young unnamed backpacker who narrates this novella is searching for an escape from routine and predictability. This quest takes him from Italy to New South Wales in Australia – all the way to Byron Bay to be precise.
