IN THE EARTH
Fungus The Bogeyman
RELEASED 18 JUNE 15 | 107 minutes
Director Ben Wheatley
Cast Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia,
Hayley Squires, Reece Shearsmith
Show of hands: who’s up for another horror set in the woods? We understand the lack of enthusiasm. Thanks to their ready availability they’ve become a go-to location for low-budget filmmakers (read: mostly bad movies). But when Ben Wheatley goes down to the woods, you’re sure of a good surprise.
Joel Fry is Martin, who treks 15 miles into the forest with ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia) to find an old colleague, Dr Wendle (Hayley Squires). Once he finally does, he learns that her researches into crop growth have veered onto a peculiar new path: communicating with nature via lights and sounds.
By tapping into the real-life science of the mycorrhizal networks which interconnect arboreal habitats, Wheatley’s script provides a new twist on the environmental horror subgenre. The director and his DOP also frame this most ancient of haunts in a fresh way. There are some beautifully eerie shots: swaying branches framed by the aperture in a standing stone; light streaming through the tree canopy; ominous clouds of fungal spores.
It’s a curious brew. There are elements of folk horror – sinister woodcut art primes us to expect a “spirit of the woods”, while Clint Mansell’s pared-back synths bring to mind Ghost Box Records’ hauntological roster. It’s darkly humorous, thanks to the likeably hapless Martin’s snowballing misfortunes – so wince-inducing you laugh in self-defence – and Reece Shearsmith’s role as Zach, a deranged yet oddly solicitous hermit with a line in phrases so League-ish that you suspect some embroidering of his dialogue.
It’s also psychedelic, both in the visual sense (from strobe-cut shots of flowers and dye spreading in water, to full-on ’90s rave video sequences) and the philosophical one: mind-expanding, or at the very least thought-provoking. If only all filmmakers who go green were capable of producing something so beguilingly idiosyncratic. Ian Berriman
Growing up in Essex, Ben Wheatley lived by some woods, and often had nightmares about things happening in them.