Review: 'In the Earth' considers modern terrors before opening up to a hallucinatory horror ride

Modern fears give way to ancient ones in “In the Earth,” a trippy lost-in-the-woods horror thriller that lives in the middle ground between David Lynch and “The Blair Witch Project.”

In a remote English forest, far from where a viral outbreak is decimating cities, scientist Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) has arrived to help solve a mystery: What happened to Martin’s former mentor, Dr. Olivia Wendle (Hayley Squires), who went into the woods and lost contact with the outside. Martin starts a two-day hike to Dr. Wendle’s last known location, with a park ranger, Alma (Ellora Torchia), as his guide on the two-day hike.

On the second day, Martin and Alma are bludgeoned by an unseen attacker. When they wake up, their shoes are gone, Martin’s scientific equipment is trashed, and they’re lost. Soon they are befriended by a hermit, Zach (Reece Shearsmith, late of the UK comedy “The League of Gentlemen”), whose goodwill hides a darker motive.

Writer-director Ben Wheatley, whose past credits include the dystopian “High-Rise” and the guns-ablazin’ “Free Fire,” filmed this movie in a COVID-19 “bubble,” and the eerie dissonance of our pandemic-ruled lives envelops the early scenes of Martin’s arrival. But Wheatley soon plunges his characters, and his audience, into more traditional terrors — shadows in the forest, ancient books, strange noises and the paired madness of Zach’s and Dr. Wendle’s obsessions.

There’s a hallucinogenic quality to Wheatley’s images, as Martin and Alma try to reckon with things they can’t quite believe are happening. Some of those things are bloody and gory, others are just plain weird, and audiences may be torn as to how effective or inscrutable it all becomes. Viewers may find what they get out of “In the Earth” depends on what expectations they bring to it.

——

‘In the Earth’

★★★

Opens Friday, April 16, in theaters where open. Rated R for strong violent content, grisly images, and language. Running time: 107 minutes.