SXSW 2021 Review: Gaia

Gaia (2021) is a South African horror/suspense film. It was written by Tertius Kapp, and directed by Jaco Bouwer.

Somewhere deep in the rainforests of (presumably) South Africa, Gabi (Monique Rockman), and Winston (Anthony Oseyemi) float purposefully down a river in their canoe. The two work for a forestry service, and on this day they are out in the wilderness setting up trail cams, and retrieving data and SD cards from them. At this particular moment, Gabi is controlling a drone which she is flying around the jungle, collecting footage. As the drone reconnoiters the area, it comes across a strange and filthy man in the middle of the woods. Suddenly, the drone goes dead.

Gabi asks Winston to pull over so she can get out and go find out what happened to the drone. Winston is hesitant because, well, there was a strange and filthy man out there who has likely messed with their drone. As the two have no idea who the man is, nor why he is out there, Winston thinks it best if Gabi doesn’t go check things out on her own. Gabi tells Winston to get stuffed, and off she goes, into the jungle. Winston shakes his head and continues his reconnaissance along the river.

It turns out Winston was right, and as Gabi investigates the fate of her drone, she stumbles into a trap set by the filthy forest guy, which plunges a wooden spike straight through her foot. Terrified and bleeding profusely, Gabi leis on the forest floor where she determines that she is being stalked by things in the woods. She breathes in some airborne spores and beings to hallucinate. While tripping, Gabi discovers a beaten up old wooden shack which she ducks inside of. Meanwhile, Winston has become lost in the forest and is being menaced by some unseen entity.

The next morning, Gabi wakes up to find she is sprouting mushrooms from her skin. Next thing she knows, she is set upon by not one but two strange, filthy men. Although afraid at first it seems like the pair have no ill intentions as they fix up Gabi’s foot. Through some conversation it comes out that the filthy men are father and son. They plan to take Gabi back to civilization, but not until her foot heals. Gabi wants to go find Winston, so the trio set out to find Winston. However, when they find him, they don’t like what they find. Something sinister is afoot in this jungle, and Gabi is going to need all of her skill and wits to deal with her transient captors and to evade her invisible, arboreal nemesis.

Gaia was an interesting flick to be sure. There was a lot to love, but also a lot to dislike. There are two separate stories going on in this movie. There is the one about these jungle mushroom monsters, and the spirit of the forest. Which, although it cribs pretty heavily from A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018) is pretty cool. The monsters are creepy and gross. The makeup effects employed by the film are spectacular. Really top notch stuff. Additionally, the cinematography of the jungle is beautiful and the landscape itself becomes a character in the film.

There is some ecological subtext present in this part of the story, and it’s take on the whole “spirit of the forest” angle is fresh and unique. If you thought The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill segment in Creepshow (George A. Romero, 1982) was provocative, disturbing, or gross, You will really get a kick out of Gaia. It definitely takes the natural reclamation thing to the next level.

It is the other storyline however, that really hamstrings Gaia. The other part of the story involves Gabi’s residence with the filthy family, father Barend (Carel Nel), and son Stefan (Alex Van Dyk), and this is where the wheels really start to come off. Once again we have a situation where the decisions that characters make, do not make much sense. Instead of focusing on the horror angle, and providing Gabi with realistic goals, and realistic motivation, the film chooses to place, at its heart, a poorly developed, and mostly unbelievable romance between the very much adult Gabi, and the very much adolescent Stefan.

For some reason, Gabi falls head over heels for Stefan, and chooses to rip the filthy family apart for purely selfish reasons. The terror and omnipresent threat of being consumed by spores, and murdered by mushroom monsters seems to mean very little to Gabi. She ignores these threats during times that she isn’t being menaced directly by them, and becomes possessed by this bullshit, half-baked romance. Instead of returning to civilization to not only escape the mushroom monsters, but seek medical treatment, and alert the forestry service to the grisly and untimely death of her co-worker Winston. Gabi opts to essentially kidnap Stefan and provide a life for him in modern society that she feels his father has unfairly denied him by choosing to live a hermetic existence out in the jungle.

Sadly, the film doesn’t bother to give us any kind of reason to believe or accept this May/December romance. It takes no time to establish any kind of connection these two might have, or one that might develop if they were stuck together. On the contrary, after the first day or two, Gabi could simply leave on her own, but for some bizarre reason, decides that she is moving in with the filthy family because she’s got the hots for Stefan.

Shit, they could have even turned it into a love triangle, where Berend, who obviously hasn’t felt the touch of a woman in years, immediately falls for Gabi, but unfortunately, Gabi is into Stefan. They could have pitted Berend and Stefan against one another, their conflict fueled by their lust for their new roomie. But no, Berend couldn’t be less interested, thus, when he (and an unseen co-conspirator) turn on Gabi and Stefan, it makes absolutely no sense and is in fact laughable.

Gaia could have been this really bizarre love story set against the backdrop of the planet turning on humanity. Or it could have been a sick AF horror film set against the backdrop of the planet turning on humanity. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It was a disappointing mish-mash of the two that never really congeals. It has an air of seriousness about it, but is quite stupid in the way it plays out. Everyone in the film, save Winston is a bad guy. There is nobody to root for. Like, are we supposed to root for Gabi? Because I sure wasn’t.

I don’t even need to bother with being offended at the suggestion that this grown woman is sexually fetishizing this teenager. First, there are tons of movies that deal with that kind of a situation, and do it MUCH better. But secondly, and more importantly, the relationship between Gabi and Stefan is handled in such a cursory and arrogant manner, that it is patently ridiculous. I was too worried about the poor writing to be concerned that their relationship would likely be considered inappropriate by a lot of people.

The conclusion of the film is equally as ridiculous. Gaia expects its audience to overlook too many simple things in order to believe in the ending of the film. This might not have been so offensive to me, had the film not already demanded that I ignore every preposterous decision made by our small cast of characters up to this point.

I really wanted to like Gaia. It had so much potential, and there is a lot of great and cool stuff going for it. Sadly, too much of the film is frustrating and unbelievable for me to get to where I wanted to be with it. Watch this film at your own peril. Try to enjoy it for the stuff that doesn’t suck. But if you are like me, the kind of viewer for whom the story needs to make sense for it to work, you will likely find yourself wishing you had watched something else.