We're also warned from the start that Olivia's work focuses on the uncommonly fertile soil in the forest, so we prime ourselves for the possibility that we're going to get invasive fungus action (the hero even tells us that he had ringworm recently). The visuals are obsessed with openings and orifices and eye-like shapes, many discovered in woodland panoramas, others created within the landscape of the body itself. It's as if Wheatley had seen Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (one of the great lost-in-the-magic-woods movies, as well as a towering work of philosophy and ethics) and thought, "This film would be even better if it had an actual stalker in it." And so the fragility of flesh takes center-screen and we're treated to many closeups of bleeding, torn, mangled body parts. The first act feels a bit like a European arthouse cinema head-scratcher that aims to ponder the fate of humanity in the age of extinction-level threats (most of them being our own collective fault) but that makes sure to throw ultra-violence and gnomic mysticism into the mix, as an audience engagement insurance policy. Without disclosing specifics, let's call this one a wilderness survival drama, with elements of slasher and body horror cinema and undercurrents of pre-Christian mythology and ooga-booga bedtime stories. You can tell by Squires' unnerving line delivery and facial expressions (somehow, she's both droll and menacing) that in her own way, Olivia is just as unhinged. When the movie brings Olivia into the story, following a protracted, almost Kurtz-like buildup, she turns out to be as unsettling as Zach. Much of the film is a hostage drama, with the duo falling into the clutches of a creepy loner named Zach ( Reece Shearsmith), who brutalizes them with the aplomb of Leatherface's family or Jigsaw from the " Saw" movies. Alma and Martin are brutalized and knocked unconscious in the woods soon after their arrival, with Martin suffering a foot wound that will get worse and more disgusting as the story unfolds. She is convinced that all plant life is interconnected through a sort of psychic neural network and can talk amongst itself, and to us. Olivia's work is meant to improve crop growth efficiency.
Olivia Wendle ( Hayley Squires), who shares an undiscussed, deep bond with Martin, and has been unreachable since switching off her radio. Martin Lowery ( Joel Fry), who has been isolated during a pandemic and craves human contact, goes into the woods with park ranger Alma ( Ellora Torchia) to locate his colleague Dr.