a review of 英格兰的田野

I'll admit, this one kind of surprised me. I was expecting something more directly supernatural, and instead got something that was both slightly low-key and deeply odd. I actually took a bit of extra time just now to go back and watch it again after initially watching it over the weekend. The second viewing made it a bit easier to pick up on the characters and background. The group dynamics became a lot clearer to me, in particular the influence wielded over them by O'Neil prior to his first appearance (Sidebar: Was he literally camouflaged as that carved wooden post?) around the 30-minute mark. For one thing, it becomes obvious from the beginning that Cutler is doing O'Neil's bidding. By the time it was revealed in the third act, I'd already figured out that the alehouse story was something O'Neil planted in Cutler's mind to bring everyone to the field. But I hadn't put together that he'd also made Cutler spear the mercenary (1) chasing Whitehead at the beginning, thus eliminating the only character with both the skills and inclination to arrest him by force. I'm also nursing a maybe-crackpot theory that Friend might have been (say it with me now!) dead the whole time, and was brought back to life at the beginning in the same way that he was at the end (twice, even!), along with Cutler and Jacob. He didn't seem like a complete puppet of O'Neil's, so I'm still working out what his function was to the plan. Perhaps he was literally there as comic relief, to distract Whitehead from the encroaching darkness being brought on by O'Neil. I do kind of wonder how self-aware the bit was towards the end where the dying Jacob laments having never found the treasure in the field, and Whitehead grabs his hand and says something that basically amounts to "IT TURNED OUT THE REAL TREASURE WAS FRIENDSHIP ALL ALONG". I think it's possible that the whole thing (packed as it was with comedic actors) was actually intended as a stealth black comedy, dressed up as a mock-1970s period horror-drama. (1) Who I immediately recognized as Julian Barratt from The Mighty Boosh, only to see him get cut down just as quickly. Sigh.