In the Earth

I watch a lot of bad movies. But every once in a while a movie comes along that makes me so angry. A movie that makes me wonder who made it and what were they thinking?

I like weird movies. I like smart, deep and ambitious movies. But this movie is straight nonsense. Utter madness. It's an attempt to be weird and different and out-there without any effort in grounding it in any logic. All abstract with nothing concrete to hold onto. Pretentious to the max.

During this movie, I asked myself the following questions. What is this even about? Can we move forward or have any kind of story progression? What is the point of all this madness? Why is this movie still going? Why am I still watching this? Is there even the slightest chance there will be something redeeming at the end if I wait it out? (No!)

The only things I liked were the cinematography, the atmosphere and a few practical effects. But my anger wouldn't allow me to give this 2 stars. (1 viewing, 1/23/2022)

The world is in the midst of a deadly virus, scientist Martin Lowery is joined by park ranger Alma, the pair head into a forest looking for equipment, where they encounter Zach.

I was really looking forward to this, a good cast, an interesting script, and a relevant theme, as it was made during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Very atmospheric and visually quite appealing, it had some plus points, including the acting, Squires and Fry were good, Reece Shearsmith was particularly zany as Zach.

Very much out of that arthouse style, it's very avantgarde, a style that will appeal to some, and equally irritate others.

It's slow in parts, and does seem to take an age to get going, but when it does, it's actually quite entertaining, Zach makes for a good villain, and there's enough intrigue and suspense to keep you entertained.

Weird, but entertaining, 6/10.

In the Earth can feel dull at times and it's lack of answers is extremely unsatisfying but it has enough individual parts that work to make it a good and unique horror movie. Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith and Ellora Torchia all give great performances. There are some extremely disturbing moments and oddly funny parts. Ben Wheatley's direction is really good even if some of his stylistic choices really don't work. The music by Clint Mansell is amazing.

When I read the synopsis for this 2021 movie, I have to admit that I was intrigued and the plot sounded interesting. And with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I found the time to sit down to watch writer and director's Ben Wheatley movie.

Well, I managed to suffer through just under one hour of the ordeal that is otherwise known as "In the Earth", then I just threw the towel into the ring and gave up. This movie was so unfathomably boring and pointless. And I have to say that you have to forget everything you read in the synopsis, because it plays absolutely no real part in the actual movie.

The events that took place through the hour that I suffered through just had nothing to offer in terms of entertainment, and needless to say that the storyline was just so abysmal and boring that no matter what transpired on the screen it just wasn't sufficient to alleviate for the shortcomings of the movie.

The plot was boring and pointless, and so were the characters. Sure, they had gotten some good actors and actresses for the movie, but the error here was that the performers had nothing solid to work with in terms of script and characters. Reece Shearsmith - playing Zach - really carried the movie with his performance, though he could only do so much to salvage the train wreck that is "In the Earth".

Visually then "In the Earth" is a strange movie, and I assume that if you are high on mushrooms or some kind of psychedelics' then you will probably enjoy the odd visuals that permeate the movie. But if you sit down to watch a proper horror movie, then "In the Earth" was just a massive swing and a miss.

Even with having watched an hour of this movie, I sat there with a feeling of 'is this really it?' and 'what a waste of my time this was' as I got up to end the torment.

This is definitely not a movie that I will recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through this ordeal in full or parts so you don't have to.

My rating of the 2021 movie "In the Earth" lands on a massively disappointing three out of ten stars.

Like too many horror films of late, weirdness is a stand-in for coherence and story. Mumbo jumbo about a big rock that supposedly talks to humans. Very, very slow film that's ultimately pointless.