My thanks to NetGalley and Repeater Books for an advance copy of this new collection of screenplays by one of the most dynamic and interesting teams creating cinema today, movies that shock, awe, and inspire with their visuals, their plots and the their characters.

I loved movies for the longest time. One day I just didn't anymore. I am not sure why. Life probably. A lack of people to see movies with, and my own personal malaise. This was about the beginning of the 2010's and I just didn't have the interest. Until than I watched movies all the time, had an enviable DVD and VHS collection with laser discs and even a few Beta's tossed in. I read books about movies, making of, what went wrong, biographies, movie business and of course screenplays. I am not sure why but a few years ago I began watching Kanopy through my library, and came across a movie A Field in England, that I remember seeing something about, and decided to watch. And I am glad I did. The story, the visuals, the history, the mushrooms, a movie I couldn't describe to others, but one that took me back to when I cared about celluloid and what films could be. So when saw this collection, I was thrilled, and after reading it I am even more thrilled. Inspired even. Three Screenplays: Kill List, A Field in England, and In the Earth by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump feature works by this dynamic duo, that are impossible to categorize, difficult to synopsize, and makes one want to watch movies, discuss movies, and even dream about making your own films.

The book has a an introduction by director Ben Wheatley with a little bit about the making of the three screenplays, written by either himself, his wife and partner Amy Jump or by both of them together. There is a little history, and a bit of discussion about the use of ad libs and changes on the set, something rare in the historical movie just keep dialogue of the time. . The first is Kill List a bit of domestic drama, a bit of thriller tale, and a bit of supernatural, mixed together in taut little film. The one known to many is probably A Field in England, taking place during the English Civil War, about a group of men, lost in the fog of war, taking refuge in the hedgerows, sharing a meal, and losing their minds. In the Earth is a story about the world, what we take from it, illness, secrets, capitalism, and loneliness. The book features the shooting script, and one can see changes, due to problems in production, sets, and the little things that come up while making films. Little things that can cause discrepancies, but can make a richer story as cast and crew react.

I really liked this for there is much in the way of dialogue that I feel I missed while watching these films. Little things that one can get from the screenplay, how little bits appear that become important later. What I had never noticed before was how the screenplays really shape the characters in ways that don't seem obvious, but payoff in the watching. I also appreciated that one could see the different directions that stories could go, and it is interesting to compare to the finished results.

Fans will enjoy this for the screenplay, while people interesting in film and movie magic will learn how to shape a script. To create characters that are interesting, and how to move the action along, even when it seems the movie is sitting still. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and hope to read more by Wheatley and Young, about film creating movie magic, and even how they both work together so well.

If you're going to pick three screenplays for Ben Wheatley films, it makes sense that it's these three, the folk horror-adjacent trilogy. Also, arguably, his three best. Though it's more surprising how much of a whole they feel when, as his preface reminds us, Kill List was a collaboration with Amy Jump, A Field In England was her writing solo, and In The Earth was just him. Still, I suppose they are partners in both senses, so a high degree of sympathy makes sense, even before one starts considering the recurring theme of unspoken communication and unseverable bonds.

I don't read many screenplays, and when I have it's often been for something like Withnail & I, which is mostly about its words, as witness that being a book in its own right. Here, each film only runs about 40 pages, even including the occasional deleted scene, and particularly with Kill List, you really notice how much isn't on the page; it's not that the edgeland settings aren't mentioned, but they're not half so overpowering as on screen, and I could easily picture someone who'd only seen Free Fire reading this and assuming it was a similar film. A Field In England, on the other hand... I'd always wondered how much the casting of comedians had influenced the way I took it, whether it was more of a straight horror than I let it be, but no, I think even on the page it's black comedy, though of course maybe that's because I remember the readings of the lines (and unlike the other two, this was the one where the period setting meant the actors weren't encouraged to improvise, so what's here is closest to what was made and watched).

And then there's In The Earth, the only one I saw in the cinema, a mycorrhizal trip and as good a capture as any of quite how badly the Event did the world's collective head in. Was it really five years ago that we emerged blinking from the cinema and needed to sit down for half an hour before we could consider anything further? No, because time has yet to regain its former meaning, if it ever will. As a read, it's still unsettling, but it can only be an echo of that full multisensory bombardment. Particularly if, like me, you keep being pulled out of it by the apparent decision throughout the book not to correct errors (your/you're is a particular crapshoot) or even obvious typos; I suppose one might charitably call it a way of conveying intimacy by presenting the actual script the actors got, not a version gussied up for the public.

Still. This never pretends to be a replacement; it's an adjunct, for completists. You'll notice little bits and bobs that were lost in the mix on screen (I hadn't registered the sly gag in Field about the real treasure being the friends they met along the way) even before the occasional detail in the directions that, however talented these casts, could never be conveyed exactly ("Whitehead screeches like an abused milkmaid"). It's not essential, but I'm glad it's available.

(Netgalley ARC)