Gaia

Gabi and Winston are environmentalists checking on remote wildlife cameras in the deep jungle. Gabi loses a drone to what appears to be a wild man. She goes to retrieve the drone. Instead, she finds a father, his son, and a monster of nature.

This is a fine little body horror. It starts more like a cheap Eli Roth horror. As it got more into the body, I was hoping for Cronenberg level. In the end, it's a fine indie horror that hints of something more. It touches on environmentalism, Greek tragedy, and survivalist cult but it doesn't fully satisfy. I like some of the visuals and some of the ideas. This is interesting but not all the potential gets realized.

"The largest organism on the planet just right here waiting, and it's ready to spread."

Gaia encompasses an injured forest ranger on a routine mission who is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father reveal a cultish devotion to the forest. Eco-horror has become more popular over the past couple of years. It's one of those sub genres of horror that I've been ready to watch once I even hear about it, regardless if it's supposed to be good or not. Gaia had its premiere at SXSW gaining decent reviews and acclaim for its cinematography. To start off, this is a beautiful movie to look at. The shots are well thought out and mind-bending. With every eco-horror movie, there's also some body horror to go with it. The prosthetics are really cool with this. It takes fungi and makes it pretty and horrifying at the same time. There's a good amount of colors that pop out from the rest of the darkly lit screen. The sound design is also very effective. For horror movies, the technicals behind it all are crucial, and the team behind this knew what they were doing here.

What fails mostly is the structure. There are great parts throughout. The intensity is always heightened from the minute it starts. Seconds in, we're already straight into it. It's one of those movies that just starts. Part of me wanted to like the structure, but I feel like a cold open or a build up of sorts would've benefited here. The characters are thrown in and we know nothing about them. Characterization is really weak which is a shame. Once they do expand upon them, it either feels too overdone or doesn't make much sense. Getting past that, the story is decent. I was always interested in what may happen. The concept is pretty good. I'm not sure what happened though. The delivery felt underwhelming. As the movie goes, it's not bad, but it's just not that great. The delivery just doesn't work as well as it could. It could be the script or the direction, but there was a disconnect somewhere. Each aspect, though, has something good. For what it is, it's good filmmaking. Some scene are well directed, and it's especially shows through with the camera work. And the script has some thought provoking elements, more so towards the end. I don't know. I wanted more out of Gaia by the end. It plays out in a way you'd think it would. If you are to watch it, watch it for the camera work and prosthetics because they are the true screen stealer.

That was different and poetic. Yeah its similar to last of us. Yes its slow, but it doesnt make it any less beautiful. Idk what it all means or if there is a deeper meaning but what i came out with is the tree is life, and we are the virus.

This film could of been great, it had a great idea, good effects, just not alot happened, a few to many 'dream like' scenes that went on for to long, i feel like they tried to hard to not be a standard, lost in the woods/creature horror film.

Its obviously good to try something diffrent but i think this film would of been better if it just embraced what it was.

Another indie eco-horror released this year. A bit ago I watched In the Earth, and it was one of the worst and seizure-inducing movies this year. Gaia was a significantly better tho, in both visual effects and story.

As with most eco-horror, the experience was like taking mushroom and tripping the entire time. This movie was overloaded with creative and breathtaking visual effects. I was often enthralled, especially the long scene where the main character was in a long trip. The designs and looks of the creatures in the movie was also good, although the camera was a bit shaky and unclear when they appeared.

Story-wise, it wasn't anything new. The main theme was about nature claiming back its place. The movie was also a environmental commentary on human since the Industrial Evolution. Still, there was a pretty good twist to the story, and I enjoyed it at the end. However, the story didn't always come together logically. It felt like the movie focused too much on the visuals that the it pushed the borderline over to style-over-substance.

Overall, an okay horror despite great visuals. 6/10.