HYPERBOREA / A Field in England

**Posted by Yora** 8/05/2014 8:07 pm

I've never heard of this movie before until someone mentioned it as good inspiration for a Carcosa campaign. And I was surprised how good it is. From a black and white low budget movie set in the English civil war and shot in 2 weeks, you don't usually expect a lot.
It's about an alchemists apprentice who is hunting for one of his masters partners/competitors, who has stolen some very important manuscripts. After passing through a hedgerow to escape from a battlefield, he meets three soldiers who are also trying to get away. Nobody said anything about deserting or cowardice, they are just going to get a drink at an alehouse that is supposed to be somewhere nearby. When they find a strange rope lying in the grass, things are starting to get really Weird. With capital W. The field is clearly not entirely off this world, and they and up finding a fifth man, who happens to be the rogue alchemist who stole the manuscripts. And as he is telling them, he came to this field to find a treasure, and they are going to help him. And things get increasingly downhill from there.
The movie could be called Horror, though it's not exactly scary, or even Mystery, but there is no real investigation and discovery of what's going on. Interstingly, almost all reviews and comments call it a movie about drugs and hallucinations, but the director himself said that that isn't at all how he is seeing it. To me, it looks like a pretty much straightforward movie about lovecraftian magic. The mushrooms that feature prominently in the film seem to be more like amplifiers of the supernatural, not the source of figments of the mind. It's about a dangerous supernatural place, not about some mystic journey of self reflection. Treating it as a movie about some down on their luck losers who get high would be selling the movie short and missing out on a lot of what seems to be going on.

I'm really not quite sure what to take from it for the presentation of magic in my games, but I know I really want to. There's no sparkles or fire or lightning, but a fair deal of things that should not be. Or rather, not be happening.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 8/19/2014 2:02 pm

From a book we're publishing called Last Words: Considering Contemporary Cinema:

"Wheatley’s most recent work is perhaps his finest. It’s also his most disturbing. And that’s saying something. A Field In England (2013) is set during the English Civil War. A small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. They are captured by two men: O’Neil (Michael Smiley) and Cutler (Ryan Pope). O’Neil, an alchemist, forces the group to aid him in his search to find hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field. Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the treasure might be something other than gold, they slowly become victim to the terrifying energies trapped inside the field.

"A psychedelic trip into magic and madness, the film became the first ever UK film released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD and Bluray, on Film4 and on VoD."

**Posted by Scalydemon** 10/23/2014 8:24 pm

Looks like it is on Amazon Prime streaming for free. I'll check it out. Have also heard this talked up on forums etc.

**Posted by Scalydemon** 10/27/2014 11:39 pm

Ok, true story. I tried watching this Saturday night starting at about 1130pm and fell asleep about 40 minutes in. Lot's of dialogue and I was sort of buzzed up and tired.

I will give it another chance as I was promised mushroom forests!!

**Posted by Scalydemon** 11/20/2014 7:05 pm

Ok I finished watching it. There were no mushroom forests, just a ton of rather dry dialogue.

**Posted by Ghul** 11/20/2014 9:33 pm

Well, at least you gave it a shot.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 11/20/2014 9:38 pm

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

**Posted by Ghul** 11/20/2014 10:05 pm

Handy Haversack wrote:
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!

**Posted by rhialto** 11/21/2014 5:19 am

Ghul wrote:
Handy Haversack wrote:
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!

I was expecting "The time is gone, the song is over", but I guess that makes sense in a way.