At a certain point in the new mind-twisting Moorhead and Benson film, ‘Something in the Dirt,’ you start to feel the conventions of drama setting in. In many ways, it evokes the same themes explored in the thriller from Jordan Peele, ‘Nope,’ from earlier this year. From there, it’s not so much that the film derails, as the hyperbolic train begins to levitate off of its track entirely. Like Peele, Moorhead and Benson hold space for humor in their story without lingering on a punchline. Unlike Peele, they seem to have done it on a quarter of the budget. This is not apparent, however, by looking at the themes, ideas, plot, or anything in that general corner of things. Even its special effects are believably crafted for the big screen. The two are masters of microbudget indie cinema, and ‘Something in the Dirt’ is a revelation of a story.

Moorhead and Benson, co-directors on ‘Synchronic’ and ‘Spring,’ among others (expect to see them directing Jonathan Majors as Kang in the near future), seem to be working with a skeleton crew. The two play neighbors, and later co-directors for a documentary, as their relationship evolves into paranoia over a strange experience they share, and a pheonemon they witness and ultimately try to record. The onset of its story, which similarly winds into the fabric of Los Angeles history itself, begins with a clear quartz ashtray, floating as light beams and an unusual sound emits from Levi’s (Justin Benson) new apartment. As the plot continues, it spirals and twists in surprising and mind-bending ways, unfolding into a plethora of odds and ends. The result is part science fiction (big surprise) but also part mockumentary, thriller, dark comedy perhaps, and much more.

Neither one of these characters are what they seem at the beginning, though neither one flags at particularly “normal” either. It’s a good pairing to ‘Under the Silver Lake,’ and a fan of one will probably be a fan of the other. By the end of its story, what enraptured me wasn’t so much what happened during the interim, but why. Instead of a reliance on concept, ‘Something in the Dirt’ continued to expand and bewilder, its sightline growing over time into a bewildering conspiriacy. Beyond this, the pulse of its story continued exactly where it began, and where indie cinema ultimately lives and dies: with its characters, as few as they are mighty.