When a stand-up comic (Stephen McCole) cracks a joke about an old school friend he barely remembers, it marks only the start of a living nightmare in this new Scottish thriller. To say much more about the plot is to risk hampering your enjoyment so I'll leave it at that.
The comedy aspect is a clever inclusion in the film, demonstrating how the same event can be both terrifying and funny depending on how it is described. In a kind of twist on Woody Allen's MELINDA AND MELINDA, we're essentially seeing the same things from two perspectives - the horrific (when it happens) and the humourous (when it's retold as a joke), but it's also a successful device to throw the audience off guard, constantly mixing some hilarious comedy routines with some nerve-shredding terror at the hands of the villain of the piece, excellently portrayed by Malcolm Shields.
Credit also goes to director Justin Molotnikov and his team for crafting such a fine thriller out of a pretty small budget, but the film really belongs to McCole. He was the most convincing of the heist gang in STONE OF DESTINY and he stole every one of his scenes way back in RUSHMORE, so I'm glad I finally got the chance to see him in a strong leading role. On the strength of this we can only hope it happens more often.
Whether this ever sees a cinema release is doubtful - it's Scottish, which puts it at a disadvantage from the start - but it should at least turn up on BBC in which case I strongly urge that you watch it. We can only hope however that more people get the chance to see it on the big screen - are we really so dismissive of our homegrown films that we'd let a decent Edinburgh-made thriller languish at the expense of going to watch whatever banal Hollywood remake is opening at the local multiplex this week?
I live in hope.
The comedy aspect is a clever inclusion in the film, demonstrating how the same event can be both terrifying and funny depending on how it is described. In a kind of twist on Woody Allen's MELINDA AND MELINDA, we're essentially seeing the same things from two perspectives - the horrific (when it happens) and the humourous (when it's retold as a joke), but it's also a successful device to throw the audience off guard, constantly mixing some hilarious comedy routines with some nerve-shredding terror at the hands of the villain of the piece, excellently portrayed by Malcolm Shields.
Credit also goes to director Justin Molotnikov and his team for crafting such a fine thriller out of a pretty small budget, but the film really belongs to McCole. He was the most convincing of the heist gang in STONE OF DESTINY and he stole every one of his scenes way back in RUSHMORE, so I'm glad I finally got the chance to see him in a strong leading role. On the strength of this we can only hope it happens more often.
Whether this ever sees a cinema release is doubtful - it's Scottish, which puts it at a disadvantage from the start - but it should at least turn up on BBC in which case I strongly urge that you watch it. We can only hope however that more people get the chance to see it on the big screen - are we really so dismissive of our homegrown films that we'd let a decent Edinburgh-made thriller languish at the expense of going to watch whatever banal Hollywood remake is opening at the local multiplex this week?
I live in hope.
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