Ben Wheatley entered the horror space in the last decade and quickly developed a reputation as a modern master of the macabre. His first genre feature, Kill List, earned critical acclaim for its unsettling blend of crime thriller and cult madness on folk horror fringes. Folk horror resurfaced again in 2013’s period film A Field in England. In the Earth, Wheatley’s latest, picks up the thematic mantle from A Field in England in many ways, along with the horrific events that transpire thanks to psychedelics. In all three, Wheatley uses folk horror as an entry point; sometimes it’s a red herring, and sometimes it’s merely a reference point. More overtly, these films share a commonality in English filmmaking roots and the filmmaker’s use of genre to reflect society.
Kill List stars Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley as business partners Jay and Gal, respectively. The longtime friends are former soldiers turned hitmen. Jay also happens to be a family man, with wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) and son Sam (Harry Simpson), but hasn’t contributed financially in nearly a year thanks to a botched job that left him traumatized. At Shel’s urging, she organizes a dinner party with Gal and his new lady, Fiona (Emma Fryer), where Gal presents a new job to Jay. Their new employer tasks them with a series of hits, and the job grows more ominous and stranger with every target.
The hints that something is amiss, like the symbol Fiona carves into Jay’s mirror or that the targets thank their killers before death, almost fade into the background. At the forefront of the narrative is Jay’s volatile domestic life and his struggle with PTSD. Jay and Shel launch into screaming matchings but reconcile almost just as quickly. He wants nothing more than to be left alone rather than needled into productivity by his nagging wife. Gal presents the more laid back and level-headed of the two hitmen, though no less vital to Jay’s mental wellbeing. By nature, Jay and Gal’s career choice lends itself to crime thriller, particularly in how it plays out for most of the runtime.
Pictured: Kill List
It can be easy to forget the horror, for the most part, right until Wheatley pulls the rug out from under the viewer, subjecting its leads to a harrowing battle through tunnels and a field hosting ritualistic sacrifice. From an American perspective, the straw masks and Pagan-like rituals harken back to The Wicker Man, our most familiar touchstone to this type of old-world Paganism. In the U.K., that predates the film; Wheatley’s referencing what inspires films like The Wicker Man. In an interview with Cinema Scope, Wheatley described how it’s embedded in U.K.’s history and culture, “I live in Brighton, on the coast, and there’s this town called Lewis that does this famous fireworks display. And it’s all very pagan. People come around, they dress up in these strange costumes and burn crosses and barrels and this effigy of the Pope that they set aflame. So stuff like that still goes on.”
The focus on Jay through an everyman perspective is also cultural, though relatable on a far-reaching scale. From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s difficult not to perceive Kill List‘s climax as drawing influence from British film noir classic The Third Man, especially in its third act that sees Orson Welles’ Harry Lime attempt to escape through sewer tunnels.
Pictured: The Third Man (1949)
Two years later, Wheatley dug deep into English history to weave a small-scale tale of hallucinatory madness during the 17th English civil war. It follows a group of deserters who flee from battle and find themselves on a nightmarish voyage when they cross a circle of magic mushrooms. A Field in England, starring Reece Shearsmith and Kill List’s Michael Smiley, embraces folk horror imagery to illustrate the brutal clash between Catholicism and Paganism. The horror comes from the horrific acts the characters commit and inflict upon each other while under the influence. The basis stems from the folk idea that one can get trapped if stepping inside the mushroom circle. Instead of the more familiar Witchfinder General serving as a primary inspiration, Wheatley explained in an interview with Uncut that he turned to more unexpected British films; war docudrama Culloden and nuclear war T.V. chiller Threads. Both feature societal fallouts through the context of war’s consequences.
Pictured: Shearsmith in A Field in England
Shearsmith teams up with Wheatley once more for his latest shot during lockdown chiller, In the Earth. While a deadly virus ravages the world, Dr. Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) heads deep into the woods to locate Dr. Olivia (Hayley Squires). At the lodge, he briefly learns of an old folktale that tells of a wooded spirit, passes health exams with lies, and meets his park scout guide Alma (Ellora Torchia). Issues almost immediately beset the pair’s lengthy trek; they encounter abandoned tents, and Martin confesses to being out of shape for the journey. Then, Martin and Alma are attacked in the middle of the night and left shoeless. It leads them to Zach (Shearsmith), a hippie type living off-grid. Getting in and out of the forest won’t be so easy anymore, as reality ceases to hold meaning.
Here, both the pandemic and folk horror elements serve as a bit of misdirection; it’s humanity and psilocybin-induced madness that brings the horror. Wheatley places this story much closer to Hammer’s Quartermass and the Pit and early Dr. Who; meaning science proves to be the more significant catalyst than Paganism or folk tales. As with the previous two features, In the Earth gives an unflinching depiction of violence fueled by societal ruination.
Kill List, A Field in England, and In the Earth all feature folk horror, but its tropes and motifs are utilized as components rather than the driving force. The more extensive connective tissue between them is the distinct way in which Wheatley uses horror to scratch beneath the surface to explore British history and culture. Underneath modern civilization exists centuries’ worth of stories, many of them dark. All three films offer allegories for intimately rendered accounts of social ruin and breakdowns in society. Wheatley makes them visceral through experimental stylings, stark violence, and, in the case of the latter two, mind-bending psychedelia.
In the Earth is now in theaters from NEON.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/sponsored/3659490/connecting-ben-wheatleys-kill-list-field-england-in-the-earth-folk-british-horror/
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