The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C
Well, this is…..different. I’m still not entirely sure if it’s any good, but it’s certainly different. First of all, In the Earth has absolutely nothing to do with its own trailers. Based on the trailers, I was expecting a Blair Witch knockoff without the found footage gimmick (I even had a few lines for this review in my head based on that premise, all of which are now useless). Having seen the film, I’m not sure if the person who cut that trailer should be fired or promoted because I don’t know how I would market this thing either. Put it this way: I started the movie with three other people in the theater and I was the only one left in the theater at the end (and one of them was a woman that goes to the movies often enough that I recognize her and even she left). I have seen far, far worse films that are much more deserving of walkouts, but that gives an idea of how divisive this film will likely be. At the least, I think there are good discussions to be had about In the Earth if I can actually find someone else who has sat through the whole thing.
Quick public service announcement: If you have epilepsy, then this movie may kill you. In fact, this is the first movie that I’ve ever seen open with a warning about epileptic seizures. It’s not uncommon for the theater to put such warnings on posters in the lobby, but this is the first time that I’ve seen it in the movie itself (which is a shitty system because you have to buy a ticket to see the warning). Even as somebody without epilepsy, In the Earth can be difficult to sit through because of the intensity of the strobe lighting used for extensive periods of the film. Be warned.
Written and filmed in 15 days during the height of the pandemic, In the Earth is a low-budget movie with a small cast of relative unknowns. The film takes place in a world that has been ravaged by a pandemic, but that oddly plays very little role in the plot. So we don’t have a witch (as implied in the trailers) and the virus angle (introduced at the start of the film) has little to do with the story, so what the fuck is In the Earth about? Well, our two main characters, Martin and Alma, are travelling through the woods and encounter a couple of psychopathic hippies that are trying to communicate with the spirit of the forest. As you know, psychopathic hippies aren’t friendly and the rest of the film feels like a mix of a slasher movie and Misery after dropping acid. A lot of acid.
I spent much of In the Earth trying to come up with other films as a point of reference. The maniac tree-huggers angle evokes a bit of The Wicker Man (and it’s unofficial remake Midsommar, which stars the same actress as this). I also thought of It Comes at Night, another thriller set against the backdrop of a pandemic with trailers that fucking lied to me (I was promised a monster movie, I got no monster and nothing came at night). So there isn’t really anything here that hasn’t been done before, in one way or another, but this film’s insistence on being weird for the sake of being weird is just odd and off-putting. Aside from the brain-murdering strobe lights and quick editing, the film is prone to having its characters trip balls and go off on psychedelic tangents that become both distracting and irritating. Mushrooms even become a plot point, as they are emitting a hallucinogenic mist that makes the characters freak out if they walk through it (is this a real concern in forests?). The basic plot is actually quite simple, but the film makes itself seem infinitely more complicated by lacing the entire thing with LSD. I’m honestly not even sure what happens in the last few minutes, so I couldn’t spoil the ending if I tried.
In terms of scares, there isn’t much here. The film basically only has four characters, so there is little suspense or imminent threat to their lives because the plot wouldn’t sustain it. All of the gore comes from the film’s odd obsession with torturing the main character’s left foot, making the movie feel like an extreme bastinado fetish video made by maniacs (if you need to Google that then you probably shouldn’t Google that). There are a couple of uncomfortable scenes and the film plays on the fear of people losing their minds from living in isolation, but there isn’t all that much here in terms of traditional horror.
As much as I feel like I should hate this, I don’t. Every time I started feeling bored or annoyed, there would be something that would bring me to the brink of liking it. The performances are all great, especially Reece Shearsmith as the fucking insane Zach. The film is surprisingly well-shot (not counting the seizure-inducing sections) and comes up with a number of striking images. There are even a couple of genuinely disturbing moments, especially if you are squeamish about feet. But, overall, the film never takes full advantage of these elements and is less than the sum of its parts, eschewing its good points in an effort to emphasize weirdness over entertainment.
Considering how much I complain about the lack of originality in modern film, I feel a bit like a grinch for also not being enamored with something that is being different, but In the Earth is a frustrating experience. I expect that the vast majority of people will either love it or absolutely hate it and I can understand both perspectives, so I am going right down the middle on this. I don’t recommend running out to the theater to see it, but you could check it out on tv one day to see if you fall into the love-it camp. If you hate it, at least changing the channel takes less effort than walking out of the theater.
Image By: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/In_the_Earth_movie_poster.jpg
