Horror has many sub-genres and there’s been a recent rise in eco-horror, Gaia being the latest. If Annihilation and The Ruins spored, you would get Gaia.
Gaia, a South African film written by Tertius Kapp and directed by Jaco Bouwer, wastes no time in setting the stage for the horror. Sweeping drone shots quickly establish an isolated location devoid of human life except for our drone pilot, Gabi (played by Monique Rockman), and Winston (played by Anthony Oseyemi) her fellow ranger. However, you know they won’t be alone for long as this is a horror movie and the drone comes across a man covered in mud who captures it and shuts it down. Gabi decides to go for her drone alone and they two split up, which everyone knows is a classic horror no no.
They are obviously out of cellphone range but Winston makes a judgment error and leaves his walkie in the canoe and then they are never able to effectively communicate again as by the time he goes back for it he damages it in his haste.
These two mistakes, Gabi’s choosing to separate even though Winston didn’t want to, and Winston forgetting his walkie, force Gabi to rely on aid from Barend (played by Carel Nel) and Stefan (played by Alex van Dyk) after she is injured, speared straight through the foot by a trap of their making. They also leave Winston alone and open to attack from the film’s monsters.
For Gabi reality and dreams distort for her as she dreams of fungi growing from her arms. Waked to find them not there. Only later, she does grow fungi from her arms. Her injury is also miraculously healed.
Stefan, having spent much of his life with only Barend and his ideology as a companion, is stunted. He does not speak much and his lack of social connections has him alternatively looking at Gabi romantically and maternally. How Gabi herself views Stefan is less clear because while awake she treats him maternally but her dreams have eroticism to them. However, it’s unclear if she’s in control of her dreams or if they’re planted via mushroom spores.
Mushrooms are a big theme in the film and spores fill the screen at multiple points, there is even a creature that’s head is that of mushrooms. Mushrooms both cure and kill in this film. The makeup artist did a great job of fusing the human body with fungi and having them mold into their surface. The visual design is where this film truly excelled. The mise-en-scène is on point from the first frame until the last. Though the director Jaco Bouwer did not seem to be inclined to shoot his creatures head-on or clearly, which is a shame because based on the wonderful prosthetic work done on both Winston and Gabi it would’ve been nice to have a better look at some of the other work
Barend is the fanatic, the true believer, the one who believes in the mushroom goddess and will follow whatever she says, no matter the consequences. In case you weren’t sure he was serious in his beliefs, they made sure to give him a manifesto. This part could have been over the top and cheesy but Carel Nel sells the role, delivering a mighty monologue elucidating his beliefs on humanity. The monologue, like much of the film’s key dialogue, is delivered in Afrikaans.
After not wasting any time in act one, the second act crept along. This seemed to be intended, to build the sense of unease before the climax, but it had an unintended side effect of making the movie feel longer than its run time would suggest.
The climax has betrayal and sacrifice that leads Stefan to leave the only home he can remember and enter the urban jungle with humanity. Away from hunting for his meals to eating fast food. But, as the remnants of his fast food meal instantly decays, in the same way Barend’s offerings to the mushroom goddess did, you get the implication that it’s not over. That “the goddess” or what she represents was in Stefan all along, and because it’s a fungus it’s not done spreading.
Score: B+
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