“A strikingly original historical thriller spiced with occult mysticism and mind-warping hallucinations, British director Ben Wheatley’s fourth feature has all the midnight-movie intensity of a future cult classic. A Field in England is his most boldly experimental work yet, a black-and-white psychedelic bloodbath set during the English Civil War of the mid-17th century.
“The action takes place entirely in one location, a remote corner of English countryside shortly after a nearby battle. Whitehead is a cowardly amateur alchemist on the run from his stern master. An apparently chance meeting with the wily Cutler and two other simple-minded travelers, Jacob and Friend, turns out to be a trap. Using hallucinogenic mushrooms and deadly threats, Cutler coerces his three captives into helping a Machiavellian Irishman named O’Neill locate a sinister treasure buried deep beneath the field. As the story progresses, the initial tone of comic realism is disrupted by surreal visions and frozen still-life tableaux, spooky resurrections.
“One of the film’s pleasures is its rich dialogue -- a ripe blend of Shakespearean finery, salty swearing and lowbrow toilet humor. A Field in England looks terrific, its ravishing monochrome vistas punctuated by extreme close-ups of plants, animals, insects and tormented human faces.
“A Field in England is a rich, strange, hauntingly intense work from a highly original writer-director team. Even if it leaves you with more questions than answers, this microbudget experiment still succeeds as a purely sensory experience. The climactic explosion of super-fast jump cuts and disorienting mirrored images is particularly powerful, a bravura exercise in Lynchian high-art horror that almost swallows the rest of the movie whole.”- Hollywood Reporter
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