Gaia

Gabi and Winston are environmentalists checking on remote wildlife cameras in the deep jungle. Gabi loses a drone to what appears to be a wild man. She goes to retrieve the drone. Instead, she finds a father, his son, and a monster of nature.

This is a fine little body horror. It starts more like a cheap Eli Roth horror. As it got more into the body, I was hoping for Cronenberg level. In the end, it's a fine indie horror that hints of something more. It touches on environmentalism, Greek tragedy, and survivalist cult but it doesn't fully satisfy. I like some of the visuals and some of the ideas. This is interesting but not all the potential gets realized.

"The largest organism on the planet just right here waiting, and it's ready to spread."

Gaia encompasses an injured forest ranger on a routine mission who is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father reveal a cultish devotion to the forest. Eco-horror has become more popular over the past couple of years. It's one of those sub genres of horror that I've been ready to watch once I even hear about it, regardless if it's supposed to be good or not. Gaia had its premiere at SXSW gaining decent reviews and acclaim for its cinematography. To start off, this is a beautiful movie to look at. The shots are well thought out and mind-bending. With every eco-horror movie, there's also some body horror to go with it. The prosthetics are really cool with this. It takes fungi and makes it pretty and horrifying at the same time. There's a good amount of colors that pop out from the rest of the darkly lit screen. The sound design is also very effective. For horror movies, the technicals behind it all are crucial, and the team behind this knew what they were doing here.

What fails mostly is the structure. There are great parts throughout. The intensity is always heightened from the minute it starts. Seconds in, we're already straight into it. It's one of those movies that just starts. Part of me wanted to like the structure, but I feel like a cold open or a build up of sorts would've benefited here. The characters are thrown in and we know nothing about them. Characterization is really weak which is a shame. Once they do expand upon them, it either feels too overdone or doesn't make much sense. Getting past that, the story is decent. I was always interested in what may happen. The concept is pretty good. I'm not sure what happened though. The delivery felt underwhelming. As the movie goes, it's not bad, but it's just not that great. The delivery just doesn't work as well as it could. It could be the script or the direction, but there was a disconnect somewhere. Each aspect, though, has something good. For what it is, it's good filmmaking. Some scene are well directed, and it's especially shows through with the camera work. And the script has some thought provoking elements, more so towards the end. I don't know. I wanted more out of Gaia by the end. It plays out in a way you'd think it would. If you are to watch it, watch it for the camera work and prosthetics because they are the true screen stealer.

I'm not familiar with the video game so many referred to, so I liked the special effects for the monsters. It was very slow, so that was a negative. The main actress is obviously a new face, but I thought she did a great job and she is very beautiful. I loved the claustrophobic feeling from the ratio used in the cinematography. That forest is beautiful, but I DON'T have any urge to go traipsing thru it. LOL I found the main character to be quite selfish to the cost of others. Overall if you have patience, I think it's worth a 1 time watch. ;D.

Gabi (Monique Rockman) is a South African forest ranger who gets injured and lost in the woods while retrieving a crashed drone. Two recluses (Carel Nel and Alex Van Dyk) take her into their cabin to recover and the rest of the film is simply her unraveling the horrific circumstances surrounding this forest and its inhabitants.

It's a smaller story for sure, fitting for its modest budget and smaller studio. But I do like what they have managed to pull off here. Especially the practical visual effects dealing with all the infectious mushrooms, spores and fungi. Very creepy-looking, very unnerving. Pitch perfect body horror in a lot of ways. Kudos for that, if nothing else.

The cinematography is also effective a lot of times. The sound design and the score were perhaps a tad overblown creepy at times. Lots of frantic strings. A bit clichéd to be honest.

I also liked the actors, although from them we get to the biggest so called problem with the film, which is simply the fact that its story is perhaps a bit... seen already. There's a creepy cabin with a couple of hermits living in it. A girl from our normal modern world gets trapped within, cannot leave. Has to survive. Something slightly supernatural starts to happen.

It's.... serviceable, but not particularly inspired.

Still, I did like it. Not the best horror film by any means, but keeping in mind its budget and other limitations, it starts to edge towards impressive. And if you're a fan of practical visual effects, especially in horror films, this film is definitely worth a watch.

This is a beautifully weird and crazy, artsy and well crafted horror indie. It has an interesting idea and implies a beautiful message that we've already seen before. The score is intense and beautiful. Cinematography is awesome. It's not scary but it definitely has a disturbing atmosphere. Gaia is very good but it's not for everyone.