You better not miss the forest for the trees, because in Gaia, the trees will kill you. Jaco Bouwer directs the South African eco-horror film meets creature feature which made a splash at this year’s South by Southwest Festival. Watch the Gaia trailer below.

Gaia Trailer

It’s no secret that humanity has been steadily killing the Earth for the past few hundred years. And maybe it’s time the Earth fought back. In the environmental horror fable Gaia, a park ranger and two survivalists find themselves besieged by mysterious creatures in South Africa’s Tsitsikamma Forest. Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Anthony Oseyemi, and Alex Van Dyk star in the creepy, atmospheric horror film which doesn’t hold back in gore or disturbing imagery. This trailer is not for the faint of heart, full of sentient roots that choke and that emerge from beneath people’s skin in a bloody blossom, and weird eye stuff.

Reviewing the film for /Film out of SXSW, Matt Donato raved that Gaia is a ” welcome addition to the environmental horror canon” in the vein of films like Annihilation, The Last Of Us, and The Ruins. He writes in his review: “Gaia is a dazzling bio-horror excursion from the opening minute where cinematographer Jorrie van der Walt inverts his camera to sell glassy river reflections of dense treelines as to distort stabilization, in one of many choice stylistic maneuvers. Alarm heightens as a pulsating red light against blackened backdrops amplifies the beating heart within Gaia’s barky husk, cementing the visual proficiency of this sometimes hunt-and-stalk, sometimes parasitic, always damning advocation for cleaner lifestyles. As if writhing scenic callbacks to Antichrist weren’t enough? Jaco Bouwer commands a confident vision slathered in mud, conscious of diminishing resources, and inspired to strike molecular retribution—but don’t sigh. Monsters with extendable vines, immortal malevolence, and ferocious resolutions confirm no leisurely weekend stroll through the park.”

Sounds like a promising ecological horror film for people who think Annihilation didn’t go far enough. And based on its rather disturbing trailer, Gaia looks like it too.

Here is the synopsis for Gaia:

An injured forest ranger on a routine mission is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father reveal a cultish devotion to the forest. When their cabin is attacked by a strange being it’s clear there is a far greater threat in this unrelenting wilderness.

Gaia opens in theaters June 18, 2021, followed by an On Demand release on June 25, 2021.

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