22 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: A Field In England (2013)

Hallucinations are probably some of my favorite plot devices in Horror films.  The boundaries don't exist when making a hallucination sequence because hallucinations, in of themselves, are boundless.  They're completely tailored to one's individual fears and anxieties as well as their perceptions.  They're visual, aural, and tactile and when done right they leaver the viewer incredibly confused!  Ben Wheatley's A Field In England may be one of the greatest hallucinatory films of the last decade, at the very least, and definitely boasts the 5.1 sound design I've heard on a film in as much time.

Set during Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary civil war in England the story follows a group of men deserting a battlefield.  The band together to find an ale house and after a meal which included quite a bit of hallucinatory mushrooms along the way uncover an alchemist who takes control of them and forces them to help him find a hidden treasure buried someone in the field.

This movie is a trip.  Literally.  Amy Jump's incredible script is period correct (which is pretty awesome), the characters are all so fully realized that the connectivity between them is really beautiful, and the sound mix, as I stated before, is almost ungodly.  The incredible grounded realism combined with hallucinatory sequencing travels around the circle of the 5.1 environment.  The only downside to that fact is that I can't really imagine it having the same effect in a stereo environment which does alienate some viewers for home release.  However, that doesn't take away from the visual field which is grimy and incredibly grounded.  It could be anywhere and it could be nowhere which heightens the incredibly uneasy mood and tone of the film.

I also love that it was shot in Black and White.  The binary coarseness of it heightens the overall tone in all the best ways possible to accentuate the performances.  And what performances they were.  Michael Smiley, who I know best as Tyres in Spaced, is a truly wicked villain.  He's a malicious egoist who is so completely self assured that when his "victims" retake control of the situation his downfall is beautifully brutal.  All of the elements combining in this film are symbiotic toward the overall vision, which is what most films truly aim for (but don't always succeed at) in the long run.  While this film certainly skirts the fine line of what is Horror and what is not, it's occult influence is incredibly clear and it's unconventional narrative is brilliant.