Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
As a deadly virus ravages the world, Dr. Martin Lowery embarks on a mission to reach test site ATU327A, a research hub deep in the Arboreal Forest. The arduous journey, guided by park scout Alma, is set back by a nighttime attack that leaves the two bruised and shoeless. When they run into Zach, a man living off the grid, they gratefully accept his help. Zach’s intentions aren’t exactly what they seem, however, and a path out of the forest and into safety quickly fades as the line between myth and science blurs.
Ben Wheatley's pandemic-era folk horror experiment has genuine atmosphere and some striking psychedelic visual sequences, but the plot is underdeveloped and meanders without satisfying payoff. The acting is serviceable, with Joel Fry and Reece Shearsmith doing solid work. Cinematography leans into trippy strobing effects that are visceral if divisive. Novelty gets a modest bump for its pandemic production context and Wheatley's idiosyncratic genre blending of folk horror with science-gone-wrong, though it doesn't fully distinguish itself from his stronger work. The ending is frustratingly abrupt and ambiguous without earning its inscrutability, leaving viewers more confused than unsettled.