A Field in England

A Field in England is a 2014 British historical psychological horror film directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay by Amy Jump, who also co-edited it with him. Shot in black and white, it is set in a field during the English Civil War, where a small group of deserters, among them an alchemist's assistant named Whitehead, is drawn into the service of a rival alchemist, O'Neill, who forces them to dig for buried treasure. After the men eat mushrooms growing in the field the story slides into hallucination and violence. Wheatley became interested in the period while filming a documentary about the Sealed Knot reenactment society. The film was financed by Film4's innovation division on a budget of 300,000 pounds and shot in about twelve days in the countryside outside Guildford. Its release on 5 July 2014 was notable for arriving in cinemas, on home video, on video on demand and on free television on the same day, and it won the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.