Film Review: Gaia

Gaia is a South African eco-horror film from writer, Tertius Kapp, and director, Jaco Bouwer. It follows two park rangers Gabi (Monique Rockman) and Winston (Anthony Oseyemi), who are out on what is meant to be a routine surveillance assignment. However, Gabi gets injured, and Winston goes out looking for her. Luckily for her, she is saved by two survivalists, Barend (Carel Nel) and his son, Stefan (Alex van Dyk), who both seem to have an intense devotion to the forest. Gabi starts getting surreal visions, and Winston comes to realize that there might be something lurking out in the forest.

Fans of the Last Of Us video games will be quick to notice a striking similarity in both sight and sound between the clickers of the game and the creature that our characters encounter, complete with it being born out of infectious spores coming out of fungi. However, there is more to the phenomenon here than just being a creepy creature. Barend mentions that this thing lives under the ground, and awakened by the actions of man from its deep sleep, a way for the planet to reckon with all the things humans have done to harm the environment.

Gaia is more often a somber and meditative horror film, relying more on the building of dread throughout the film than through big scares. Although, there is some genuinely gnarly gore and nightmarish makeup work. There’s not just the obvious influence of The Last Of Us, but you could draw connections to recent films like It Comes At Night, A Quiet Place, Annihilation, and while it was likely in production around the same time, it could make an effective double feature with Ben Wheatley’s Into The Earth, which offers a more subdued and somewhat trippy take on a fairly similar premise.

While the confluence of influences and its messaging about man’s affect on the planet might seem hackneyed on paper, what makes it work is Bouwer’s craft. From its claustrophobic aspect ratio, to the evocative camera work by Jorrie van der Walt, to its sound design and constant droning and eerie score from Pierre-Henri Wicomb. There’s a lot of purpose to the choices made in the filmmaking here, and it easily overcomes some of the more convenient or confusing moments within the storytelling and character beats. It’s a striking film, and I can’t imagine anyone going into this without having gotten a strong impression.

Gaia has many admirable elements, and your feelings on this will likely depend on your patience for this style of bleak and moody eco-body horror. I think it comes together quite well due to the work put in by the filmmakers. It’s an unnerving and very well performed genre film that doesn’t need to do a whole lot for it to get under your skin, and it offers a lot beyond the impressions you may have initially gotten with the Last Of Us influence. The messaging may be a bit simplistic, but it still taps into something that I think is on a lot of people’s minds, especially due to the rise of problems that are rooted in climate change. It’s an anxiety that is very real, and the film touches on some of these feelings with a sharp sense of horror filmmaking. It’s very well done, and it’s nice to see this kind of craftsmanship on what I assume is a fairly low budget feature. Whether this will connect to a mainstream audience, I kind of doubt it, but I can imagine horror fans embracing this, and appreciating it for what it is. It’s definitely a smaller film worth supporting.

Gaia hits select theaters on June 18th, and VOD platforms on June 25th.