The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
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Gaia
Horror · Fantasy · Drama · 2021
In the depths of an ancient forest, something has been growing. Something older than humanity itself, and perhaps greater too. When a park ranger discovers a man and his son living wild, she stumbles onto a secret that is about to change the world.
Movie details
Gaia
“She will transform us”
2021 Horror · Fantasy · Drama 1h 37m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
5.9 / 10
Community rating
In the depths of an ancient forest, something has been growing. Something older than humanity itself, and perhaps greater too. When a park ranger discovers a man and his son living wild, she stumbles onto a secret that is about to change the world.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Gaia?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Starve Acre
Horror · 2024
When their son starts acting strangely, a couple unwittingly allow dark and sinister forces into their home, awakening a long-dormant ancient evil rooted deep in the countryside.
Medusa
Horror · 2020
After being bitten by a lethal snake, a young woman experiences changes in her senses and appearance, as she sheds her old self and slowly turns into a deadly weapon.
Brightburn
Horror · 2019
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?
The Watchers
Fantasy · 2024
A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
The Company of Wolves
Horror · 1984
An adaptation of Angela Carter's fairy tales. Young Rosaleen dreams of a village in the dark woods, where Granny tells her cautionary tales in which innocent maidens are tempted by wolves who are hairy on the inside. As Rosaleen grows into womanhood, will the wolves come for her too?
Gretel & Hansel
Fantasy · 2020
A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
Cinderella's Curse
Horror · 2024
Desperate Cinderella summons her fairy godmother from an ancient flesh-bound book, seeking revenge on her evil stepmother and stepsisters who abuse and torment her daily.
Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed
Drama · 2004
Brigitte has escaped the confines of Bailey Downs but she's not alone. Another werewolf is tailing her closely and her sister's specter haunts her. An overdose of Monkshood - the poison that is keeping her transformation at bay - leads to her being incarcerated in a rehabilitation clinic for drug addicts where her only friend is an eccentric young girl by the name of Ghost.
Backcountry
Horror · 2015
A couple on a deep-wilderness hike become hopelessly lost within an aggressive black bear's territory.
Nocebo
Mystery · 2022
A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino caregiver who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Jaco Bouwer
Written by
Tertius Kapp
Monique Rockman
Gabi
Carel Nel
Barend
Alex van Dyk
Stefan
Anthony Oseyemi
Winston
Court is in session
Put Gaia on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.