The director on his new horror movie set during a pandemic, fearing he’d never work again, and why audiences love Jason Statham
For many of us, much of the past year will have felt like the plot of a horror film. So when, in March 2020, the British writer and director Ben Wheatley, 48, found himself with some unexpected free time, it was clear what the genre of his next project would be. The result, the terrifying and blackly comic In the Earth, went from concept to virtual Sundance premiere in less than 12 months. It is set in the midst of a pandemic that may feel familiar in some senses but, on a two-day forest trek, a scientist (Joel Fry) and a park scout (Ellora Torchia) also have to contend with a malignant woodland spirit and a deranged Reece Shearsmith. Wheatley has an eclectic, never-dull, often grisly backlist that includes Sightseers, Kill List, Free Fire and Rebecca. He lives in Brighton with his creative and real-life partner, Amy Jump.
Wind the clock back to March 2020 – is it true you thought that Covid could bring about the end of cinema? And specifically that you weren’t going to work again?
I didn’t think it was necessarily the end of cinema, but I did think I wasn’t going to work again. But I think a lot of people felt that. Everything came into very sharp focus, because all of a sudden there were only about three different jobs: working in a hospital, working in a lab and delivering food… There wasn’t really anything else that seemed to make any sense at all. And, obviously, film director is very far away from core national need.
