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In the Earth dvd

As the world searches for a cure to a disastrous virus, a scientist and park scout venture deep in the forest for a routine equipment run.

399.00

In the Earth is a 2021 horror film written and directed by Ben Wheatley. An American-British co-production, it stars Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires, Ellora Torchia, John Hollingworth and Mark Monero.

Plot

A deadly virus has ravaged the world, and people are struggling to develop a cure or find ways to live in spite of the virus. Martin Lowery is a scientist sent to a government-controlled outpost located in an unusually fertile forested area outside of Bristol to help in the studies and experiments of his former colleague and ex-lover Dr. Olivia Wendle regarding using mycorrhiza to increase crop efficiency. After passing a physical examination and meeting his park guide Alma, he learns of the local legend of Parnag Fegg, a woodland spirit. The following morning, Martin and Alma begin their two-day hike toward Olivia’s site.

Alma informs Martin that Dr. Wendle has not been heard from in months, and later, she finds a small box where Dr. Wendle would leave notes and updates of her research, only to discover it empty. The next day, Martin and Alma reach Dr. Wendle’s “mycorrhizal mat,” a wide-spanning area where the forest’s flora is connected in a singular network using fungal hyphae. That night, Martin discovers an odd, ring-shaped rash on his arm before he and Alma are assaulted by unknown assailants who also raid their camp, destroy their equipment, and loot some of their supplies. Forced to carry on barefoot, Martin badly cuts his foot on a sharp stone jutting out of the dirt, which Alma helps treat.

Getting closer to the site, Alma is alarmed by the absence of wildlife and the feeling that they are being watched. They are then approached by Zach, a man living in the woods who offers to lend the pair some shoes. Taking them to his own campsite, Zach disinfects and stitches Martin’s wound and gives them both food and a drink made up of various flower petals. Martin and Alma begin to lose consciousness, realizing they have been sedated, but fail to escape. Zach then takes their unconscious bodies and dresses them in white robes and takes several ritualistic photographs of them in various poses with white paper ellipses placed over their eyes.

Upon waking up, Martin discovers his arm carved and stitched with a strange symbol, which Zach describes as a mark to be seen by a presence in the woods, claimed by Zach to have once been an ancient sorcerer who placed his essence in a standing stone somewhere in the forest. Zach also accuses Dr. Wendle, who’s later revealed to be his ex-wife, of trying to control the presence, while he believes in honoring it through worship as well as his pictures (that he’s taken using several other victims). After giving them a weaker sedative to keep them awake, Zach informs Martin that the cut on his foot has gotten infected, and he amputates several of his toes using his hatchet.

While Zach takes Martin outside to take more photographs, Alma acquires a discarded blade to free herself and Martin before attacking Zach with his photo-developing equipment. As Martin and Alma flee, Zach manages to shoot Alma with an arrow before chasing Martin with an axe. Martin and Zach come across some of Dr. Wendle’s equipment, including amplifiers strapped to the trees and several strobing florescent lights that result in both of them suffering from intense hallucinations. Shortly encountering the standing stone, Martin is found and rescued by Dr. Wendle as Zach appears to succumb to his earlier injuries. Alma, having survived her injuries, finds her way to Dr. Wendle’s camp.

The next morning, Dr. Wendle cauterizes Martin’s foot as she explains about her project. Having found the standing stone after her own experiments produced no results, she spent the next several months researching until she came across a 17th century-era book titled “The Hammer of the Witches,” part of which expounds about the forest and Parnag Fegg (which translates into sound (Parnagus) and light (Fegg)). With Zach’s help, they attempted to communicate with the presence inside the stone using the lights and noises from an electronic soundboard. Attempts to use rites in the book to affect the mycorrhiza resulted in Zach’s insanity. Though the mycorrhiza is strongest near the stone and extends for miles, Dr. Wendle is confident that they can expand its reach to encompass the country. Unable to trust Dr. Wendle and fearing that Zach is still after them, Alma tries to convince Martin that they need to leave, but Dr. Wendle refuses to abandon her research, telling Martin that she’s certain that the forest drew him there the same way it drew her and Zach.

The next morning, Dr. Wendle’s site is surrounded by a thick mist containing fungal spores, trapping them. Alma volunteers to go through the mist in a hazmat suit despite Dr. Wendle’s advice to let the mist disappear on its own. Shortly after entering, Alma is plagued and rendered delirious by hallucinations, the suit’s mask unable to filter out the spores. That night, the mist encroaches closer to the site as Zach, having survived his injury, arrives to speak with the others, telling them to communicate with the standing stone using the sounds and lights as well as consuming a “sacrament,” a mixture of ground mushrooms alluded to in the book. Dr. Wendle believes the stone will provide answers as to how humanity can better co-exist with nature.

Martin agrees to drink the sacrament and waits for it to take effect. One of the lights malfunctions, and when Alma goes to check on it, she is knocked unconscious by Zach. He then approaches Martin, who struggles to get away from him in his dazed state. Alma, having woken up, finds Dr. Wendle at an electronic piano with Zach’s pictures covering the wall, revealing her complicity in everything. Zach hears their struggle over the sound system and goes to the site, where he and Alma fight before she manages to kill him by stabbing him through the eye with a hook. She then returns to the stone, where she stops Dr. Wendle from slitting Martin’s throat as a sacrifice. The three of them are then subjected to a series of kaleidoscopic hallucinations involving previous events as well as the stone and the space around it taking the form of Zach’s photographs.

By morning, Alma and Dr. Wendle suddenly find themselves far from the stone, broken out from their trances. Dr. Wendle, overcome with awe, collapses on the ground. Alma then approaches Martin by the stone, and as he wakes up, she offers to guide him out of the woods.

Cast

Joel Fry as Martin Lowery
Reece Shearsmith as Zach
Hayley Squires as Olivia Wendle
Ellora Torchia as Alma
John Hollingworth as James
Mark Monero as Frank

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