"Gaia" is a South African trapped-in-the-forest thriller that trips up expectations more than enough to keep us interested. It's an eco-horror tale where who and what we root for and against are flipped and flipped again as the story tales hold. And it's icky in ways that would make many a creature feature green with…

At first glance, it’s near impossible to look at the creature designs of this South African horror-fantasy and avoid making comparisons to the highly

A terrifying contagion spreads in this chilling South African eco-horror that takes the fun out of fungi

Resourceful visual effects are the star of Jaco Bouwer's auspicious calling-card feature, but a thin, patchworked script wilts beneath them.

A SXSW dispatch on three narratives that premiered at the virtual festival. 

NOW IN THEATERS! Getting lost in the woods rarely ends in a good time, and Jaco Bouwer's Gaia is no different. For Gabi (Monique Rockman), a park ranger, she stumbles across Barend (Carel Nel) and Stefan (Alex van Dyk). They're a father and son duo who aren't especially normal. They dress like they're about to go

If by chance Ben Wheatley’s “In the Earth,” a contagion eco-horror film that’s trippy to the point of incomprehensibility, left you dissatisfied and slighted, consider revisiting the niche with Jaco Bouwer’s “Gaia.” Bouwer indulges in uncertainty, too, but unlike Wheatley, he never confuses obscurity with profundity or meaning, which is a fancypants way of saying […]

After a while, the film’s elaborate, often breathtaking special effects come to feel like it’s only source of complexity.

Mankind doesn't follow God because He's compassionate. Anyone who's looked through history at the death and destruction wrought in His name should know this all too well. Man follows Him out of fear—a fear so deeply rooted in our DNA that we cling to a fantasy instead of admitting its crippling hold. Because what's God

In our Gaia review, we take a look at the latest entry in the environmental horror canon, one that blends nasty creature work with a message.

A thought-provoking and disturbing experience.

Bring your own mushrooms to the fungus-monster eco thriller Gaia