“Open up and let the devil in!”
I truly have no frame of reference for a film like A Field in England. The only comparisons that spring to mind are kaleidoscopic fever dreams like Koyaanisqatsi or Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. More than a film, A Field in England is a visual poem, one that operates with the inscrutable yet undeniable logic of dreams. Ben Wheatley is operating in the realm of Andrei Tarkovsky or Nicolas Winding Refn here, presenting a kind of kabuki mosaic of madness and servitude. It might not be scary in the traditional sense, but it is grueling, and a stark look at the darkness of the human soul. (Oh, and here’s a content warning: there are stroboscopic images here, as well as two penises.)
Whitehead, an alchemist’s assistant, is deserting the army. It is the English Civil War, and as Whitehead scrabbles through the bushes, we hear the fire of guns and cannons, as well as threats shouted by his captain, Trower. The dialogue in this film is brilliant, and Amy Jump (who co-wrote previous entry Kill List) captures the dialect of the time in the best way I’ve seen since The Witch. The words here will cement themselves into your brain. I’m especially fond of Trower shouting, “Your pretty parts are doomed, homonculus!”
Soon Whitehead falls in with a group of deserters from the enemy side, dirty, starving men found looting corpses. There’s Cutler, the nominal leader; Jacob, gruff and suspicious; and Friend, simple but occasionally profound. As they make stew in a field, Cutler adds in some mushrooms. Only Whitehead, on a fast, does not partake. Soon the men are prisoners of Cutler and his master, the wizard O’Neill.
This is very much a horror film based around captivity, which is underlined by the huge expanse of the field. It’s a bizarre juxtaposition, to be in so much freedom and have it denied to you. O’Neill (played by Michael Smiley of Kill List) and Whitehead were once apprentices under the same master, until O’Neill absconded with some documents. There is treasure in this field, he says, and Whitehead will find it through divination so Jacob and Friend can dig it up. Like all of Wheatley’s films, the strangeness ramps up steadily until it makes sense to the audience; to wit, when O’Neill takes Whitehead into his tent, all we hear is Whitehead shrieking in agony or terror or both. It goes on far longer than you’d imagine. Whitehead emerges, his mouth contorted into a horrible rictus, and he wears a rope harness around his chest. He runs around the field like a slobbering dog until he finds the location of the supposed treasure. It’s a testament to Wheatley’s sure hand, and the performance of the cast, that all this seems to make a strange kind of sense. We don’t question what O’Neill did to Whitehead. It makes sense in the film.
A Field in England is one of the most gorgeous horror films I’ve ever seen. Shot in stunning black and white by Laurie Rose (another veteran of Kill List), the English countryside looks both stark and lush. Watching the grass wave in the wind is hypnotic. Wheatley is a master of staging, as well. There is nearly always something going on in the foreground or background, and the use of wide shots underpins just how isolated and insignificant these men are. The score, by Jim Williams, mashes together contemporary instruments, folk instruments, and ominous ambient sound, all of which should clash with each other, but instead just add to the film’s beautiful, horrifying patina. Sometimes the characters will just pose in tableau for a while, as if imitating a painting. We don’t know why, but we know the film calls for it.
Beyond the strangeness of A Field in England, some viewers might be turned off by the sheer nihilism. In a funny twist, the treasure turns out to be buried right by O’Neill’s tent. As you can probably guess, there is no treasure, just rocks and bones underground. When Jacob and Friend get into a scuffle in the hole, Cutler intervenes and ends up shooting Friend. He asks Jacob and Whitehead to deliver a message to his wife: he hates her, and had an affair with her sister. Later, Friend inexplicably turns up alive, rendering moot the strangely tender scene of his death.
Ultimately, it’s hard to tell what exactly happens in A Field in England – which is exactly its point. Wheatley’s films don’t care about mass appeal, and this might be his most confrontational work. By the end, after everyone but Whitehead is dead, and Whitehead returns to war, it’s arguable that he’s still in the field, hallucinating on mushrooms. Did the wind storm happen? What of the immense planet threatening to crush our own? What of the stones Whitehead threw up, the ones with strange runes on them? This is not a film interested in providing answers. It wants to drive you mad.
10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation
10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter
10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw
10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
10/5: Kill List / A Field in England
10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep
10/9: Cube / Creep 2
10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual
10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan
10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond
10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow
10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem
10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse
10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster
10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan
10/18: The Devil’s Backbone / Southbound
10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher
10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed
10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy
10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night
10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void
10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon
10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie
10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder
10/28: High Tension / You’re Next
10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug
10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires
10/31: Saw / Saw II
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