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More than once throughout his 50-year career, British writer J.G. Ballard's writing turned out to be eerily prescient. From the more straight sci-fi of his early-60s work to the surreal and often controversial satires of the '70s, Ballard had an uncanny knack for turning humanity's worst tendencies into art. His works have been adapted to film by directors as disparate as David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg, a testament to the range of his talents. One of his most celebrated works, 1975's High-Rise, received its own film treatment back in 2015, courtesy of eclectic filmmaker Ben Wheatley, the director behind such acclaimed indie fare as Kill List, A Field in England, and Free Fire.

Following the residents of a state-of-the-art high-rise apartment building that quickly devolves into chaos when the amenities break down, Ballard's novel chillingly satirizes the ways that the upper classes cannibalize each other when their imagined social order begins to crumble.

Benjamin Booker is back with another new song, “Same Kind of Lonely,” from his forthcoming first album in seven years, Lower, out early next year.

“Same Kind of Lonely” is balanced deftly between the serene and the unsettling, with fuzz-bomb guitars rushing beneath the tender hush of Booker’s voice. Then the song’s bridge is abruptly interrupted by a burst of gunfire and screaming, which Booker recently told Rolling Stone, he sampled from video of a school shooting.

Booker said he included the audio because those random moments of horror “happen in our lives,...

Kill List Ben Wheatley returns to the small screen this month with Channel 4 zombie comedy series, Generation Z. Here’s a trailer:

Kill List director Ben Wheatley is about to television with this autumn’s Generation Z, which Wheatley has written and directed for Channel 4.

According to the British Comedy Guide, the series is a horror satire which pits a group of small-town teenagers (the gen-z of the title) against a horde of toxin-infected, rabid pensioners. It’s a little bit like Rabid Grannies, then, but with a distinctly political, post-austerity, post hope-for-the-future spin.

As the synopsis points out, it’s about “the increasingly stark divisions between generations,” and depicts “a modern Britain at war with itself. Sounds good!

The cast is itself a platter of multi-generational comedy talent. Elder states-people of telly Sue Johnston (The Royle Family), Anita Dobson (EastEnders) and Robert Lindsay (Citizen Smith) are joined by...

Exclusive: Harry Delano (Freud’s Last Session), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen), Amar Chadha-Patel (The Decameron) and Arturo Del Puerto (For All Mankind) have joined the 20th Television pilot for Hulu Downforce (working title) starring Eve Hewson and Murray Bartlett.

Downforce follows Victoria (Hewson), the estranged daughter of a storied racing team’s owner, Sir Trevor (Bartlett), who is thrust back into the family business, leaving the pair to find common ground or risk destroying the team’s legacy.

Delano will play Cayley, Alastair’s son, an engineering genius who’s put to work to help the team; Shearsmith will play Alastair, Regent Racing’s fastidious chief race engineer; Chadha-Patel will play Ihsan, the gentle giant of a chief mechanic for Team Regent; Del Puerto plays Emiliano, the ostentatious Spanish owner of a competing team who’s hellbent on destroying Regent Racing.

Alec Berg will direct the pilot and executive produce alongside Adam Countee,...

Britain’s contributions to the cinematic form have been vast and glorious. Aardman Animation. Alfred Hitchcock. Olivia Colman. 007. High up that list, too, is the British gangster movie – sure, America may often get the genre limelight with classics like Goodfellas, The Godfather trilogy, and Scarface, but nobody does dark, gritty, violent, and darkly humorous quite like the British. You certainly wouldn’t catch football-hardman-turned-movie-hardman Vinnie Jones rolling down the street with some poor geezer’s bonce trapped in his car window anywhere else, that’s for sure!

And so, with tracksuits on, geezer nicknames doled out, and knuckles dusted, Team Empire assembled a list of the very best British gangster movies ever made. From comedy classics, to bruising turn-of-the-century tales of brutality and crime, to contemporary subversions of the genre formula, we’ve covered all bases. These are films of culture, sophistication, genius. A little bit more than an 'ot dog,...

The Brit crime comedy “Down Terrace” was a hit with critics back in 2009. Made on a shoestring budget and shot over a little more than a week, it was lapped up for giving a uniquely dark and hilarious twist to the standard gangster flick while adding splashes of U.K. kitchen-sink social realism into the mix. The film also set up its director Ben Wheatley — making his feature debut after years working on TV, commercials and shorts — for cinematic greatness.

Fifteen years on and Wheatley has more than staked out his territory as one of the U.K.’s most exciting — and unexpected — filmmakers. After landing “cult director” status thanks to his “Down Terrace” follow-ups — the gritty psychological horror “Kill List,” murderous black comedy “Sightseers” and trippy period feature “A Field in England” — he then upped the stakes (and A-list stars) with J.G. Ballard adaptation “High Rise” (starring Tom Hiddleston...

Following 2020’s Nobody, Bob Odenkirk will once again be bringing a script by John Wick writer Derek Kolstad to life with Normal – a tale of a small-town sheriff sucked into a vast criminal conspiracy.

Given how popular his performances were in the hit TV show Breaking Bad, fans had long clamoured for Bob Odenkirk to be given bigger and juicier onscreen roles in the wake of that show and its Odenkirk-centric spin-off, Better Caul Saul.

They weren’t the only ones either: Odenkirk himself was spoiling to headline a film project, and perhaps surprisingly, was keen to try his hand at the action genre. The result was 2021’s Nobody, written by John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and featuring Odenkirk as an unlikely lead in a movie full of brawls, bruises and Christopher Lloyd. We really enjoyed it and we weren’t alone either.

While a direct follow-up to Nobody was...

Many British war movies focus on World War II, but there are many other conflicts which have grabbed the nation's attention. These films capture intense psychological dramas within the military, highlighting conflicts between characters rather than just front line action. Some British war movies delve into the personal stories of individuals involved in the war, highlighting their struggles and contributions beyond the battlefield.

Some of the best British films of all time are war movies. Britain has a long military history, dating from tribal skirmishes in the ancient world to the modern era. The country has played a key role in some of the most pivotal global conflicts in history, with war also holding an important place in the nation's conscience.

Most British war movies are set during World War II since this period remains a huge focus of British popular culture. There are stories from the front lines in France and elsewhere,...

You can smell what’s happening in “Starve Acre” before you puzzle the rest of it out. The grassy, peaty dampness of its rural Yorkshire setting seems to hit the olfactory glands without any scratch-and-sniff assistance, only intensifying as the film unearths its literally deep-buried secrets. Daniel Kokotajlo’s impressive second feature unfolds in a vein of British folk horror that has been popular of late — with films from Ben Wheatley’s “A Field in England” to Mark Jenkins’s “Enys Men” all tapping into that retro “Wicker Man” eeriness — but rarely with such rattling sensory specificity or formal refinement. Starring Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith as former townies unprepared for the full burden of lore they inherit with their desolate farmhouse, it’s a tale of quite outlandish fantastical leaps, grounded by the chills it also finds in common weather and wildlife.

Premiering in the main competition at this year’s London Film Festival,...

This month marks four years since it was announced that Ben Wheatley, whose latest film Meg 2: The Trench is in theatres now (you can read our review at This Link and check out our interview with Wheatley Here), would be writing, directing, and executive producing Generation Z, a “hilarious, frightening, and political” series that would consist of six hour-long episodes that would “mix flesh-eating zombies into a story that satirizes how Brexit has divided the UK.” That project didn’t make it into production because of the pandemic shutdown… but now it has been revived, and Wheatley has confirmed that it’s going to be his next project!

During an appearance at an Empire VIP screening of Meg 2: The Trench, Wheatley said (with thanks to Fangoria for the transcription), “What I’m doing next is six hours for Channel 4, [a] TV series, a horror-based thing […] In the same...

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being reviewed here wouldn't exist. This article also contains major spoilers for "Meg 2: The Trench."

Every summer movie season deserves a killer shark flick! After all, it was a killer shark movie that pretty much kicked off what we now know as the "summer blockbuster" way back in 1975, the immortal "Jaws." Because of that film's success, every killer shark venture is inevitably compared to that Spielberg classic, its three sequels, and the large number of copies that appeared immediately in its wake. In a subgenre that's been through the waves of popularity, postmodernism, and back, there's not a ton that's wholly new out there in the ocean.

For that reason, the Sharksploitation subgenre has generally settled into a pattern not unlike the slasher, an "if it ain't broke,...

Ben Wheatley is one of the most unpredictable filmmakers working today. He impressed with his feature debut, the darkly funny "Down Terrace," but took a huge leap when he decided to blend two quintessential British genres, crime flicks and folk horror, with the terrifyingly brilliant "Kill List." Wheatley could've hightailed it for Hollywood on the strength of the latter, but he had different priorities. He bounced from the psychedelic horror of "A Field in England" to an effective adaptation of J.G. Ballard's dystopian "High-Rise" to the pitch-black shoot-em-up "Free Fire." He subsequently took a crack at Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca," and while he couldn't quite place his distinctive stamp on the material (which Alfred Hitchcock aced with David O. Selznick hanging over his shoulder in his 1940 Best Picture winner), you had to admire his ambition.

Wheatley is an undoubtedly gifted filmmaker, but, film to film, I can't...

Director Ben Wheatley serves up a busy but flavourless bouillabaisse of ideas nicked from Jaws, Jurassic Park, Alien and Sharknado, and leaves it to Statham to occasionally raise a droll smile

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark,” says Woody Allen in Annie Hall. “It has to constantly move forward or it dies.” Ditto franchises. A prologue set in the Cretaceous period hints that Meg 2: The Trench will exceed the enjoyably tacky thrills of the 2018 seaborne monster movie by going weirder and wilder – a suspicion encouraged by the presence of Ben Wheatley as director. In fact, the sequel alternately treads water and splashes around frantically in search of an identity. Never settling on whether he wants his film to be Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park or Sharknado, Wheatley serves up a bouillabaisse of all four.

Battling a 75ft-long megalodon with an 8ft dorsal fin and five rows of teeth is another sort of formidable,...

For a certain class of cinephile, the news that Ben Wheatley (Ben Wheatley! “Kill List” and “Free Fire” and “A Field in England” Ben Wheatley!) was directing the sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 hit “The Meg” could only be met with joy and confusion. If nothing else, it suggested a big-budget film about Jason Statham fighting massive prehistoric sharks that would actually be fucked up, creepy and scary and weird and spine-tingling. Alas, “Meg 2: The Trench” is none of those things, and only occasionally (perhaps even accidentally) fun, yet another seemingly unassailable combination of story and filmmaker that fails to capitalize on any of its obvious promises.

It’s never a good sign when you’re checking your watch during a film — especially a film built on the inherently entertaining elevator pitch of “Jason Statham fights massive prehistoric sharks!” — but audiences will likely find themselves doing just that during...

Five years ago, The Meg came out and was a pleasant summer-ending surprise. Placing its tongue firmly in its cheek for 113 minutes, the watery spectacle allowed us to watch the ever-watchable Jason Statham go mano-a-mano with a 75-foot shark. The idea behind the movie (which was based on a much more sober-minded novel by Steve Alten than had been in development for nearly a quarter century) was apparently to make a good old-fashioned monster movie with a few knowing winks to the audience.

The Meg’s box office success and its final shot also virtually ensured a sequel, so now Meg 2: The Trench arrives with Statham and a few other holdovers back for another round. Meanwhile workmanlike director Jon Turtletaub has been replaced this time by the eccentric indie maverick Ben Wheatley.

Set 10 years after the first film, the screenplay by Jon and Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris (the...

Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 movie The Meg (watch it at This Link) delivered on its promise of being a “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” adventure – and now director Ben Wheatley’s sequel Meg 2: The Trench is set to reach theatres on August 4th. In a newly released featurette, which you can watch in the embed above, Wheatley says his intention with this film was to make a supercharged sequel with bigger creatures and bigger action… and judging by the footage on display in the featurette, it definitely looks like this follow-up has a change of being better and more exciting than its predecessor.

The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, the same writing team that was on the first film. These films are inspired by a series of novels written by Steve Alten.

Jason Statham is back in...

In some ways, August is a month of endings, at least on television. Both Billions and Archer begin their final seasons as does a great, unusual comedy covered below. But as melancholy as that sounds, there’s plenty of new stuff on the horizon, too, including everything from a new take on (part of) Dracula and an ambitious miniseries about the opioid crisis. We’ll kick things off with a fresh take on an old favorite. Here’s everything you should watch in theaters, plus more on Prime Video, Hulu,...

Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at This Link), is set to reach theatres on August 4th – and while this sequel will feature multiple giant sharks, those aren’t the only prehistoric creatures that will be rampaging across the screen. In fact, a newly released promo, which you can check out in the embed above, says that this time “the Megs are just the beginning”. One of the other giant creatures we’ll be seeing in Meg 2: The Trench is an octopus, and you can get a glimpse of some giant octopus action in this promo, including a moment where the octopus gets in a fight with a Meg! A moment that brings to mind the 2009 classic Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus.

The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris,...

Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at This Link), is set to reach theatres on August 4th – and with that date right around the corner, Warner Bros. has unveiled a new poster for the film… one that features multiple sea creatures lurking beneath unsuspecting swimmers. You can check it out at the bottom of this article.

And if that one doesn’t handle your craving for new Meg 2 promotional art, maybe one of these new posters will:

#Meg2 Meg 2 releases posters for IMAX、Cinity、中国巨幕、Dolby、MX4D and Wanos pic.twitter.com/hNu7MXFPvp

— Meg 2: the trench (@Latteeaaee) July 17, 2023

The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, the same writing team that was on the first film. These films are inspired...

Ben Wheatley shares his fascinating journey from the ill-fated Tomb Raider sequel to the upcoming marine horror sequel, Meg 2: The Trench.

The Hollywood landscape changes and adapts to new releases and unforeseen circumstances, just as the trajectories of directors and their movies do. In a recent interview with Total Film, Wheatley shared the tale of these intertwined cinematic fortunes and how the demise of one movie breathed life into the next.

The sequel to 2018's Tomb Raider, a popular adaptation of the renowned video game franchise with Alicia Vikander portraying the iconic Lara Croft, was set to be helmed by Wheatley. Unfortunately, due to the disruptive force of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project came to an abrupt halt. Consequently, the Tomb Raider franchise is venturing in new directions, with plans for a television series and a connected universe masterminded by the acclaimed Phoebe Waller-Bridge at Amazon Studios.

As one door closed for Wheatley,...

Meg 2: The Trench would have looked very different if not for the fate of Tomb Raider 2. Ben Wheatley, the director behind Meg 2, was previously attached to the movie Tomb Raider 2, the sequel to 2018's video game adaptation Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. However, the movie never came to be and the franchise is now moving in a different direction with a planned television series and interconnected universe overseen by Phoebe Waller-Bridge at Amazon Studios.

Wheatley recently sat down with Total Film for an interview ahead of the official Meg 2 release date on August 4. During their conversation, he revealed that the reason Tomb Raider 2 didn't come to fruition was the fact that "they got stuffed by Covid-19." Because that project had stalled out, he jumped at the chance to take on Meg 2, saying "why wouldn’t you do it?" Read his full quote below:

"Basically,...

Last week, Warner Bros. unveiled the trailer for Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at This Link). If that trailer left you wondering if the sea creature mayhem of this film was going to boost it into the R rating territory, you can stop wondering. Because it hasn’t. Just like The Meg, Meg 2: The Trench has earned a PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association ratings board has given it a PG-13 for action/violence, some bloody images, language and brief suggestive material.

The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, the same writing team that was on the first film. These films are inspired by a series of novels written by Steve Alten.

Jason Statham is back in the lead...

Last month, attendees at CinemaCon – including JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray – had the chance to watch the first trailer for Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at This Link). Now those of us who weren’t at CinemaCon get our chance to watch the trailer, which is now online. Check it out in the embed above!

The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, the same writing team that was on the first film. These films are inspired by a series of novels written by Steve Alten.

Jason Statham is back in the lead as rescue diver Jonas Taylor and is joined in the cast of the sequel by returning co-stars Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, and Page Kennedy, as well as...

Warner Bros. debuted a first look at the upcoming shark attack sequel Meg 2: The Trench during CinemaCon today, and attendees seem to be pretty impressed with the footage.

Journalist Jeff Sneider tweets, “WB should just rename The Meg 2 to The Hit, because that’s what it’s gonna be. She’s hungry and back for seconds! Creatures have escaped an untouched, underwater ecosystem and are wreaking havoc in our world. Trailer is set to Barracuda.”

Eric Goldman adds, “… trailer for The Meg 2… begins with a Meg killing a dinosaur. They’re hunting in packs this time! Statham is fighting them! I’m so in!”

Rob Keyes writes, “Meg 2: The Trench trailer has the same over-the-top laughs and insanity as the first. The Megs are hunting in packs, there’s a dinosaur flashback, Jason Statham holds one back with his foot, there’s even a giant octopus or Kraken thing.

The Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, is currently in progress, and as part of the presentation they showed attendees the first trailer for Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at This Link).

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray was in attendance to see the trailer, and this is what he had to say about it: “First trailer: We see footage of The Meg killing dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Looks much more expensive than the last movie. Jonas (Jason Statham) is sent into the trench the deal with whatever creature is down there – which of course is The Meg! Wu Jing, from Wolf Warrior, is a co-star. This version of The Meg is bigger because it’s an Apex predator. It escapes The Trench and starts eating people.

Before composer Jim Williams’ had ever heard of “Resurrection,” his music was a key component of writer-director Andrew Semans’ daring and affecting new thriller. “We temped a lot of the movie with Jim Williams before Jim Williams even came on,” Semans told IndieWire. “‘We were like, ‘Well, he’s all over the movie already, maybe we can get him.’” “Resurrection,” a film that is simultaneously a heartbreaking character study, a disturbing body horror film, and at times a pitch-black comedy, was exactly the kind of project that tends to attract Williams. Given credits on his resume like “A Field in England,” “Possessor,” and Julia Ducourneau’s “Raw” and “Titane,” the composer is clearly interested in the unusual and the challenging.

“I’m drawn to the opportunity to try something out of the ordinary,” Williams told IndieWire. “Julia Ducourneau and Andrew Semans give me a lot of scope to be creative.

Officially titled Meg 2: The Trench, Jason Statham will be back as Jonas Taylor in director Ben Wheatley‘s upcoming sequel to the 2018 action-horror movie The Meg, and more casting news has arrived. THR reports that Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil: Afterlife), Skyler Samuels (“Scream Queens”) and Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood) […]

The post ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ – First Casting News Includes Returning Stars and New Faces appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Hey everyone! Before we wrap up the month of January, we have one more week of horror and sci-fi home media releases, and there is a lot to look forward to this Tuesday. Kier-La Janisse’s stunning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is getting its own release and is also included in Severin’s amazing Folk Horror compendium that includes a ton of great films beyond Janisse’s doc.

There are a ton of other great titles coming home on Tuesday, too, including Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Arrebato, the cult classic Creature, Detention, Eyes of Fire, Trauma, a limited edition release of Sleep, and a 4K edition of Blood for Dracula.

Other home media titles arriving on January 25th include Delirium: Special Edition, Ebola Syndrome 4K, New York Ninja, The Deeper You Dig, Doctor Carver and Stage Fright (1950).

All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium Of Folk Horror (15-Disc...

The U.S. lineup at Mubi next month has been unveiled, featuring films by Claude Chabrol, Paulo Rocha, Ulrich Köhler, and more. Notable new releases include Pedro Costa’s striking Locarno winner Vitalina Varela as well as the Julia Fox-led Pvt Chat (check out our extensive interview with director Ben Hozie here.).

As part of their series Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors, the Martin Scorsese favorite Wake in Fright joins Mubi, along with Fabrice Du Welz’s Alleluia, Nicolas Winding Refn’s underseen Fear X, and Ben Wheatley’s trippy A Field in England.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

October 1 | Alléluia | Fabrice Du Welz | Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors

October 2 | Styx | Wolfgang Fischer

October 3 | The Green Years | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha

October 4 | Change of Life | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha

October 5 | Your Day Is My Night | Lynne Sachs

October 6 | Hey, You!

Features: Robert Eggers, Lawrence Gordon Clark, Piers Haggard, Alice Lowe, Jonathan Rigby | Written and Directed by Kier-La Janisse

After watching Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror you certainly can’t accuse writer/director Kier-La Janisse (Eurocrime! the Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s) of just skimming the topic’s surface. Book-ended by animated credits sequences and featuring paper collages by Guy Maddin Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is a deep dive into the definition and history of folk horror. The film’s three hours and fifteen minutes are split into six chapters that make up three roughly hour-long segments.

The first segment deals with the “Unholy Trinity” of Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man. While it doesn’t deny their influence and importance, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched very quickly dispenses with the idea that they are the root of the genre,...

Running for more than three hours, overflowing with film clips, and populated by truly insightful experts, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is a cinematic graduate-level course––in the best sense. Written, produced, and directed with stylistic verve by Kier-La Janisse, the documentary is a staggeringly immersive experience, all somber music, eerie singing, and unsettling, often gruesome imagery. It is also a creation that inspires the viewer to dive even further into the world of “folk horror.” Tracking down and watching the films highlighted here would be difficult, if not impossible, but that search is part of the fun. Make no mistake: folk horror is fun.

As Woodlands begins, Janisse’s stellar experts explain, in voiceover, what it means to be considered “folk horror.” This array of words forms a strange and enticing tapestry, from “The juxtaposition of the prosaic and the uncanny” to “The Devil...

We know, we know. August hearkens the mid point of Summer and though there may still be an air of uncertainty around the end of Summer holidays one thing is for sure, Shudder will be there to help you get through it all.    Though the programming seems a little lighter than previous months there are still some very good titles coming to the AMC Network streaming service. The three main additions next month is the French werewolf horror flick, Teddy, Travis Stevens' SXSW midnighter, Jakob's Wife, starring Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden, and body horror flick Mosquito State.    Throughout the month look forward to additions of classic Vincent Price flick, Witchfinder General, Gareth Edwards' Monsters, Ben Wheatley's A Field in England, Borgman, cult fave...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Wheatley takes us into the woods with an hallucinogenic horror story of madness, malevolence and mushrooms

While the mainstream film industry wrestled with the restrictions of the Covid crisis, the horror genre offered creative opportunities for those willing to take risks. Last year saw the writing, filming and release of Rob Savage’s Host, a brilliantly stripped-down online seance chiller, tailor-made for home viewing.

Meanwhile, High-Rise director Ben Wheatley went the other way, conjuring a widescreen outdoor fiesta (written during the first lockdown and shot quickly last summer) that plays like a mashup of the 15th-century Malleus maleficarum and Merlin Sheldrake’s mycelium-themed 2020 book Entangled Life – all reimagined as a trippy horror movie. A modern-day companion piece to Wheatley’s eccentric 2013 civil war film A Field in England (complete with shroomy visions and tethered rope walks), it could well have been called A Forest in England.

This low-budget folk-horror is back in Wheatley’s weird, sly world as Joel Fry and Ellora Torchia get lost in the forest

Here is a low-budget, low-profile film that scampers through the undergrowth up to a horrible folk-horror epiphany, with undeadpan comedy and a gibbering shroom meltdown, percussively hammered home with strobe lightning flashes and skull-splittingly loud snaps. At one point, we are encircled by a fog, which a frowning scientist describes as a “suspension of mushroom spores and water droplets in the air”. It was one of those rare moments when you are glad of a mask in the cinema.

This is a return to home territory for its writer-director Ben Wheatley, maybe reminiscent of his 17th-century Leveller freakout A Field in England from 2013, which was about civil war deserters captured by an alchemist and finding the world turned upside down. And there are admittedly some familiar tropes: forests...

Stars: Joel Fry, Hayley Squires, Reece Shearsmith, Ellora Torchia, John Hollingworth, Mark Monero | Written and Directed by Ben Wheatley

In the Earth, the new film from Ben Wheatley (Kill List), begins with images all to familiar images of people in masks and hazmat suits. Here, as in real life, the world is in the grip of a pandemic. It’s against this backdrop that Martin Lowery (Joel Fry; Silent Night) arrives at a vacation lodge repurposed as a research facility. He’s there to try to find Olivia Wendle (Hayley Squires; In Fabric) a scientist who went missing in the surrounding forest.

With Alma, one of the park rangers as a guide he ventures into the woods. It doesn’t take long before they’re attacked in their sleep and their shoes stolen. They’re found by Zach who has been illegally living in the woods. He offers to help,...

Released in cinemas 18th June with previews on 17th June, In The Earth is an atmospheric new horror from visionary writer-director Ben Wheatley. To celebrate the release, we are giving away 3 limited edition t-shirts featuring an original design by Wheatley himself.

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. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them.

In The Earth stars Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires, Ellora Torchia (Midsommar), Mark Monero and John Hollingworth.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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Open to UK residents only The competition will close 28th June 2021 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available...

In a recent interview, Jason Statham has confirmed that things are finally falling into place regarding the follow up to the insane prehistoric Shark focused sci-fi action adventure movie The Meg, released in 2018. It has already been announced that the film, tentatively titled Meg 2: The Trench has nabbed Free Fire director Ben Wheatley to helm the project, a prospect that clearly excites Jason Statham. Not only does he express his delight to be working with Wheatley, he also revealed that the script is ready and that filming should begin in January.

"We're gonna start shooting in January, if I get my dates right. Ben Wheatley is the director, I'm very excited to work with him. I'm thrilled to get going, it's been a while. We've been waiting around for the right scripts to come in and the right director to turn up, and we've got all those things and they're all stacked up now.

Photo: ‘In the Earth’/Neon Ben Wheatley, the auteur behind the films ‘Free Fire’, ‘High-Rise’, and ‘A Field in England’, returns to his horror roots with ‘In the Earth’, descending back down into the dark depths of the occult, into a phantasmagoria of terror, previously explored in his film ‘Kill List’. Unlike ‘Kill List’, however, released a decade ago now, the circumstances surrounding the production and release of this film are far more different, far scarier. It would be impossible to write this review without mentioning the ongoing pandemic we’ve all experienced for over a year now, the effects of which shaped everything from how we interact with other people to how we consume media to how we shop for groceries, everything from the banal to the essential; coronavirus changed how we experience the world; and we changed because of it; our movies are no different. Now, whether or...

British filmmaker Ben Wheatley had his Rebecca remake in the can and was in pre-production on the sequel to 2018’s Tomb Raider reboot (which he is now no longer attached to) when the coronavirus began tearing its path around the globe. It would soon shut down almost all film production in addition to all other aspects of society.

At first stunned and frightened like everyone else, Wheatley — whose iconoclastic filmography also includes the nerve-rattling Kill List, the psychedelic period piece A Field in England, and the satirical crime thriller Free Fire — did what all creative people always do: channeled what was happening into a completely new idea for a movie.

One year later, Wheatley is out with In The Earth, his first horror movie since Field and, after Rebecca, a return to his low-budget roots. Set during the aftermath of an unspecified pandemic, In The Earth follows a scientist named...

Welcome back, Weird-as-fuck Ben Wheatley. We’ve missed you.

Since Down Terrace, the 2009 blend of Sopranos-style gangster saga and kitchen-sink drama that remains one of the strongest debut films in a decade, the British director has fashioned himself as a purveyor of oddball genre mash-ups, combining elements that go together like peanut butter and peyote. What if a hitman thriller took a detour into Wicker Man territory? (2011’s Kill List.) What if a daffy, misfits-in-love rom-com doubled as a portrait of serial killers? (2012’s Sightseers.) What if a tale...

Bloody Disgusting has a brand new look at In the Earth, the latest horror offering from Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Rebecca, The Meg 2), which Neon will be bringing to theaters this coming Friday, April 16th after being secretly shot during quarantine last year. In the film, “As the world searches for a cure to […]...

The director of Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Rebecca, and new movie In the Earth, Ben Wheatley will next be directing shark attack sequel The Meg 2 for Warner Bros. Speaking with ComicBook.com this week, Wheatley touched upon the massive scale of the upcoming action-horror sequel, as well as playing in an already-established sandbox. “A lot of […]...

Universal Pictures UK has released the trailer for the latest horror ‘In The Earth’ from ‘Kill List’ and High Rise’ filmmaker Ben Wheatley.

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. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them.

Written and directed by Ben Wheatley, the movie stars Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires, Ellora Torchia (Midsommar), Mark Monero and John Hollingworth.

Also in trailers – Toni Collette & Anna Kendrick star in trailer for ‘Stowaway’

The film is set for a UK release, June 18th

The post “If you go down to the woods today…” New trailer drops for Ben Wheatley’s ‘In The Earth’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Wasting no time since its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, Neon is preparing to release Ben Wheatley's eco-horror In The Earth in cinemas on April 23rd. They released the trailer today, which you will find below.    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. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them.   Our own Mel Valentin caught In The Earth during Sundance this year. You can find his full review here, below is an excerpt.    ...writer-director Ben Wheatley, no slouch...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Here’s your first look at the brand-new trailer for director Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth.

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. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them. In The Earth stars Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, Reece Shearsmith, John Hollingworth, Mark Monero.

Ben Wheatley’s films have won numerous awards, received international critical acclaim and have been theatrically released globally. Ben’s films include High Rise, Sightseers, A Field In England, Kill List while his latest film “Rebecca”, an adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier classic, premiered on Netflix in November 2020. In October 2020 it was announced that the director would helm The Meg 2 (link)

When asked what inspired the story of In The Earth,...

“Everything seems to just keep us here.” Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Rebecca, The Meg 2) shot a micro-budget horror movie during quarantine last year, titled In the Earth. Neon will be bringing Wheatley’s latest to theaters on April 23, and the official trailer has debuted today. Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bd, […]...

“Everything seems to just keep us here.” Filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Rebecca, The Meg 2) had revealed back in September that he secretly shot a micro-budget horror movie during quarantine, and we recently learned that the mysterious movie is titled In the Earth. Following the film’s premiere at Sundance, we’ve learned that the trailer […]...

Nature is a force of evil. Filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Rebecca, The Meg 2) had revealed back in September that he secretly shot a micro-budget horror movie during quarantine, and we recently learned that the mysterious movie is titled In the Earth. Following the film’s premiere at Sundance, we’ve now got a poster and […]...

While everyone was still working on perfecting their sourdough mix or tightening their glutei during the first five or six months of a still ongoing pandemic, writer-director Ben Wheatley, no slouch when it comes to making trippy, disturbing micro-budget thrillers on super-tight schedules, decided to step back into his genre roots (and boots) and wrote and directed In the Earth, an eco-horror-thriller shot in 15 days that’s something of a return to genre form for a filmmaker who had stumbled so badly with his first studio-financed film, Rebecca, Netflix’s ill-conceived re-adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel that served as fellow Brit Alfred Hitchcock’s calling card when he crossed the Atlantic to make films in Hollywood. In...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

“People get a bit funny in the woods,” a character says early on in Ben Wheatley‘s In the Earth, and that line could double as the movie’s mantra. Like the filmmaker’s A Field in England, it follows characters lost in nature, slowly going out of their minds as they talk about alchemy and magic and other things […]

The post ‘In the Earth’ Review: Ben Wheatley Gets Wild in the Woods With a Pandemic Horror Film That Assaults Your Senses [Sundance 2021] appeared first on /Film.