A Field in England (2013)

Director Ben Wheatley has done it again. A Field in England, like Kill List before it, will satisfy fans of folk horror and take you back to a time when the sub-genre was in full bloom and interest was at an all-time high. This film, which could almost be considered high-concept, takes place entirely in the titular field, and like its spiritual relative Witchfinder General, is set during the tumultuous period of England's seventeenth-century civil war. It wears its low-budget like a badge of honor: the film is mostly a handful of very talented actors conversing and fighting amongst each other, with special effects being used mostly to cover up things like planes, cellphone towers, and power lines. While it becomes a bit arcane and messy as it goes on, its wild flights of fancy and chaotic storytelling still won me over, and there simply isn't much else like it.

Within the realm of folk horror, this film is quite unique in that it's barely a horror film at all: this is actually quite an uplifting tale about a group of strangers who must band together to defeat an evil witch and their crony. The power of friendship is a genuine theme, and we get a few moments where dirty men shed tears, overwhelmed with emotion and love for their fellow man. As per usual for a Ben Wheatley joint, the human element is superb. Our lead, Whitehead, is a fascinating character who is as fun to watch as he is to ponder. His arc is the most pronounced, and his nebbish personality slowly gives way to anger and frustration and sees him wielding both weapons and psychotropic substances alike to save his new friends from the devil. The other two friends are almost as good: 'Friend' has 'fresh air between his ears' and tries not to let anyone nor anything worry him, while Jacob is a rowdy, anti-authority sort who suffers from nearly every affliction known to man and who genuinely just wants to make it to the nearest alehouse to grab a pint and a winch and take it easy for a spell. These characters must content with actor Michael Smiley's witch character, who, like a fair few things in the film, is shrouded in mystery. What exactly he wants, and how exactly he intends to find it is never perfectly clear, but that makes him an interesting villain who is consistently fun to watch, though a bit part of that lies with Michael Smiley's performance.

The folkloric aspect is well done and usually kept fairly ambiguous, so I'm not entirely certain what everything in the film means, but don't mind it that way. The psychedelic sequences feel like something that has fallen out of favor in recent years, where the director attempts to convey visually something that is quite abstract and has to get all experimental to do it, in a way that reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's kind of hard to watch because of all the fast cuts, and it would have been nice if these sequences had more unique footage shot especially for them so that it didn't feel quite as much like a remix of things we've already seen, but I digress. The current of bawdy humor feels very appropriate to a period in history when life was much cheaper, and manners were in short supply amongst the undereducated and overworked peasant class that made up their armies. Again, not the sort of things you expect when you put in what is ostensively a horror film, but the stew it all creates when put together is unique and worth experiencing just once.

As previously mentioned, the cast is fantastic overall, but even next to the dominating presence that is Michael Smiley, Reese Shearsmith is the clear standout here, giving life and color to a non-standard character. His distinctive face also has a strange quality of looking quite different depending on the angle he's shot from, and whatever face he's making, which works for the character's transformation into something fearsome by the end of the film's runtime. The rest of the cast are nearly just as great though, which is appropriate for a film where the performances are such a focus. Visually, the film is deceptively simple, as we spend most of the film in the same field looking at similar sights, but the film makes the most of it all, deciding to focus on texture and forgo color photography entirely, which ends up feeling appropriate for the period in which it is set. Costuming is quite solid as well for such a low-budget film. There is one baffling thing the visuals do occasionally that took some time to figure out on my first viewing: they recreate era-appropriate wood-carved tableaux by having the actors stand frozen in time while posed in specific ways. By the end, I found myself liking it, but it did take some time to get used to. The score, like the visuals, is understated but quite effective, with its folky, rural tones underscoring the stark visuals quite well. Overall, its technical aspects aren't its greatest strength, but they serve the narrative perfectly and are hard to find complaint with all the same.

Yes, this film is chaotic, and yes it can seem a bit underwritten as things come to a head. No, it's not particularly scary, especially considering its bromantic climax. Yes, it is often inexplicable and you will likely be left with many unanswered questions. However, regardless of any of that, this film holds itself together with lovable characters and an interesting historical setting enough that I couldn't help but love it just a little. It's dedicated to nothing but itself, without fear of scaring off the uninitiated or impatient; it feels like it picks up where British folk horror of the seventies left off, only over forty years later. Ben Wheatley and screenwriting partner Amy Jump have hit it out of the park yet again, and I find myself very excited to see what they come up with next.