I first read about A Field in England around a month ago on Whatculture and immediately knew it was a film I had to watch. Directed by Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, Kill List), and co-written by him, along with Amy Jump, this horror period piece featured a bunch of actors I mostly knew for comedic roles. While this certainly has lots of moments of black humour, overall this is just about played more straight than silly.
The film takes place in England during the English Civil War in the 17th century. Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith - Inside No.9, The League of Gentlemen TV shows) is an alchemist's assistant who has found himself caught up in the civil war after being sent on a mission for his master. Hiding from the violence, and more specifically his commander, Trower (Julian Barratt - The Mighty Boosh), the cowardly man soon encounters three soldiers from the opposing side, Cutler (Ryan Pope), seasoned career soldier Jacob (Peter Ferdinando - Ghost in the Shell), and simpleton, Friend (Richard Glover - Rogue One, Malevolence). Putting aside their differences, Cutler leads the men in a mutual desertion, stating the goal is to go to an ale house. Instead, Cutler secretly is working for the sinister alchemist, O'Neil (Michael Smiley - The World's End, Spaced TV series), who turns out to be the man that Whitehead had been ordered to locate, due to him having stolen his master's research. O'Neil and Cutler take the men prisoner, with O'Neil stating that there is a treasure hidden in the field with which he has set up camp.
I love an intriguing title, which was what initially drew me to this, even before discovering there were some comedic actors I like starring in it. Well, some of them were anyway, despite a high billing, Barratt was only in the film for a couple of minutes at the very start, I had hoped for more for him. Thankfully the other cast members were all great in their own way. Glover brings kindness and light to his scenes, playing the role of a man who lives up to his name of Friend, he also brings a lot of the less dark comedy to the movie. Shearsmith was the main protagonist, a devoutly religious coward who is out of his depth, having lived most his life around books. O'Neil was great as the antagonist, almost but not quite stealing every scene he appeared in. I felt a bit bad that Cutler and Jacob become accidentally interchangeable to me, several times in the film I had gotten these characters mixed up due to them looking quite similar to each other.
The entire film is in black and white, and certainly lives up to the title as the whole movie takes place in a field. Not having the highest budget, the whole civil war aspect is glossed over due to it occuring the opposite side of a hedgerow, so it is just sounds of battle that are heard with nothing really shown, outside of a few explosions. This was a low burn horror, and one that relied for the first two thirds almost exclusively on the actors, the field itself is completely nondescript, apart from O'Neil's tent. This was also something that become increasingly arthouse in style, with the trappings of that sub-genre, such as some full frontal nudity, dizzyingly abstract editing for some of the more tripper scenes, and a plot that was very undefined, it really is left up to the viewer to piece together their own interpretations of what exactly is happening. Personally, I put a lot of the surreal weirdness that occurs down to the mushrooms the hungry deserters ingest early into the film, with them showing definite signs of that fungus having 'magical' properties.
Elements of the filmmaking I really enjoyed, the best moments being these very strange and striking sinister tableaus that has the characters standing in purposeful poses, not moving, but not paused images, while the camera focuses on different elements of the staged scene. These felt like they were designed to evoke a certain feeling, and I lived for them, the highlight moments of the film. There was a sense of mystique to what was happening, and helping this feeling was a perfectly crafter soundtrack that fitted the vibe so incredibly well. Special effects were sparse but used effectively, one that had a character's face exploding outwards stood out in its startling use.
For all that A Field in England gets right, it's fair to say the lack of much explanation for the story led to moments of despairing confusion for me. The actors were strong in their roles, and I liked how the language they use appears relevant to the time, rather than altered to make their lines easier to understand. I had hoped for something that had more happening, things do ramp up for a more thrilling final act, but sometimes this went a little too arthouse for my liking. Still, this was a memorable film, the first horror I have ever seen set during this particular time period in England, and one that achieved what it sets out to do, even if it became occasionally a little hard to follow.
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