In The Earth

The immersiveness is wild...

It's a jab of timely anxiety, destined to be a freakout midnight movie when cinemas finally reopen.

British horror-and-mayhem specialist Ben Wheatley's little quickie is a tedious walk in the woods, a ho-hum affair featuring dull characters and a succession of unpleasant injuries. Imagination and surprise are in short supply.

The film feels like the love child of Kill List and A Field in England, but cleaves closer to straight horror, with a creeping sense of dread established from the opening scene.

It may not all come together in the end, but it's certainly going to be one of the most unforgettable experiences of 2021.

"In the Earth" isn't a complete washout; there are moments of bleak humor and genre fans will enjoy the striking imagery and gross-out shivers.

Ideas begin to topple into one another at the end, but even at its busiest and gaudiest, it remains eerie and intoxicating.

When In the Earth concludes, we're left wondering whether we've watched anything more than another "midnight" movie that's better at creating a world than in finding something telling to do with it.

Ben Wheatley injects "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Blair Witch Project" into his existing "Annihilation" narrative, though his being extra here reads more like a desperate attempt to distract from the movie's low budget than a stroke of genius.

A mildly disappointing but nonetheless compelling ride.