Directed by Jaco Bouwer
Written by Tertius Kapp
Starring Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk
MPAA Rating: R (Nudity, Language, Bloody Images, Sexual Content, Some Violence)
Runtime: 96 minutes
In theaters June 18th, On Demand June 25th

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

With the current state of the world it is not surprising that there is an uptick in genre films dealing with environmental issues. It is clearly a global issue that many creatives are trying to work through. And with films like Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth that came out earlier this year and Alex Garland’s Annihilation from 2018 we have seen some really interesting takes on environmental horror and sci-fi. It also makes sense that other filmmakers would want to emulate the same sort of tone and feel that these films give, which seems to be exactly what Jaco Bouwer’s film Gaia is trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, it's interesting imagery and atmosphere are not enough to help this films very vague story.

The film follows a forest ranger named Gabi (Monique Rockman) who injures herself while trying to search for a drone who’s single she lost. She meets two survivalists, Barend (Carel Nel) and his son Stefan (Alex van Dyk). The two have decided to live in the forest away from the evils of society. Gabi tries to regain her strength and get back home but is drawn into the darkness of the forest and these two strange men who seem to worship an unseen entity in the woods. Leaving this place becomes an almost impossible task for the ranger as she tries to find out the secrets of the forest and of these two strangers. The film is in English and Afrikaans, a germanic language spoken in South Africa.

Gaia is the primordial Earth goddess of Greek mythology, while we typically think of her as “mother earth” this warm light entity her origins are much darker. So going into a horror film that has her name as its title was initially very exciting. However it is clear the film is much more about the three leads than about the goddess herself. While I would not write it off on this alone, the drama between the three main characters is far less interesting than I had hoped and the film's environmental message seems to be much muddier than I had expected. While there is plenty of interesting imagery and creature effects in the film its focus on the conflicting beliefs and ideas of the leads becomes its focus leaving many of the interesting genre aspects in the dust.

The interactions between the characters were also very strange, uninteresting, and often uncomfortable. The film consistently comes back to this sexual tension between two of the characters which is incredibly uncomfortable. It tries to make it feel both paternal and sexual giving it all an incestuous feeling that pulled me out of much of the film. It spends so much time on this when it could be spending its time on all of the really creepy plot and goddess storyline right outside in the forest. In the end it made me a little resentful of the characters who also did not feel fully flushed out. It made it hard to empathize with them as well as understand their motives making it a frustrating experience to watch.

Perhaps the most interesting idea I could glean from the film was that man perverts and changes the words of the goddess for their own means. Barend is clearly a man who has not gotten over the loss of his wife and therefore cannot bear to go back into the world. So he creates his own world in the forest with his son and creates his own religion. So there are some interesting aspects of this film that make it a human origin story. Man is born, man discovers god, man uses god to control others. It is clear that this is what Barend intends, we never hear directly the messages or warnings that Gaia is trying to communicate, Barend interprets them and then that is meant to be the “truth”. Overall this is a great idea and concept to build the film around but the opposing side which is meant to be Gabi and her technological world does not seem to have a clear point of view. She wants to “save” and educate Stefan by bringing him to the real world but does not seem to realize the evils that the technological world also brings. It makes the struggle between the two far less interesting than it should be.

Cinematographer Jorrie van der Walt creates a beautiful looking film with plenty of lush imagery within the forest. Overall the film does look incredible which helps bring the viewer into the world. Initially it was an entrancing film that immediately sucked me in. The other strong suit of the film are the visual effects. There are really amazing creatures in the film that feel perfectly suited to the environment the film created. There is so much beauty in the fungus and mushrooms within the forest that even at its scarier moments it is hard not to be impressed with the beauty of it all. Again this brought to mind some of the creature effects utilized in Annihilation while still feeling very unique and interesting. The film also relies heavily on dream sequences that have plenty of amazing imagery that I really appreciated, even if I was not entirely sure of their necessity.

There is some interesting story in Gaia, unfortunately it seems to be more interested in its human plot which is not as interesting as they want it to be. I was excited for more goddess, matriarchal imagery, and while there are some there is not nearly enough to make it an interesting story. The best things this film has going for it are the cinematography and creature effects which definitely make it worth viewing. But if you are hoping for a more fully formed storyline you might be disappointed.