Time for some good, old fashioned horror where nature is terrifying and we are but insignificant beings that crawl upon the earth. It’s always nice to think that the planet could actually just wipe us out instead of us slowly causing it to become less and less habitable. Also a lovely backdrop of this movie coming out in 2021 so we’ve got some pandemic fear thrown in for good measure to mix in with the generic fear of the natural world to add to the whole isolation theme you normally get in folk horror.

Our two main characters are Martin, a research scientist, and Alma, a park ranger. Alma is supposed to lead Martin to a research camp that has been set up in the English woods somewhere. They are doing some sort of study of mycorrhiza, a fungus that grows in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of plants, in order to, I don’t know, improve crops or something. It doesn’t really matter. The camp is a couple days hike away and there is no way to get there but on foot and there is no cell reception out there. As you might have guessed from the theme of the week, the outsiders intruding upon the rural natural world leads to some horrific and downright trippy consequences.

This movie is so goddamn British in the way that people respond to things. Like, once things really get going and our main characters are drugged and held hostage, their kidnapper is straight up going to mutilate Martin and he’s just like “Oh please, I would prefer you didn’t. Can’t we just go to the hospital?” Like, my dude, come on. Resist slightly. It’s ok. You don’t need to worry about being rude to the guy with an axe. Their kidnapper, however, is probably the best character in the movie (not that there are more than a handful of actual characters). He is simultaneously grounded and charismatic while also being completely off his shit crazy. He’s also so goddamn British. “Well, nothing for it but to carve these runes into your flesh. Terribly sorry but, as you can see, it’s the only way for you to see him. You understand.”

The movie isn’t overly long but does feel like it could have used a little more editing. There are a few scenes that feel like they drag on a bit longer than they need to. The thing that will really either get the viewer to love or hate this movie is the sound design and imagery. Especially in the back half of the movie, there is a lot of discordant noise and electronic sound that is diegetic but also purposefully included to put the viewer on edge. Couple that with the scenes of weird, trippy flashes of images and strobe lights and you could very easily have someone be fully incapable of enjoying this. I thought it was fine but the trippy imagery feels like it undercuts the horror of what’s going on. Like it gets so frenetic and hard to parse that I just checked out during those points.

In all it was a fun way to do the folk horror tropes without having the standard folk horror people. You still end up with weird ancient rites and what not but without your standard cultist townsfolk.

Score: 3.5 out of 5