The Ghoul (2016)

Möebius Trip

The Ghoul (2016)
UK 2016 Directed by Gareth Tunley
Arrow Blu Ray Zone 2

The Ghoul, not to be confused with any of the other famous films of the exact same name (why do directors keep doing this?), is the feature length debut of writer/director Gareth Tunley. It’s somewhat gritty in the atmosphere it tries to create and this is in no small way because of the earthy portrayal of the leading protagonist Chris, played by Tom Meeten. The film starts off with the old chestnut of roads and highways observed through the front windscreen of a car... a staple of many movie opening sequences, especially gialli and polizia... and at first this film does kind of dupe the audience into the idea that this is a British polizia in nature.

After Chris has journeyed from Manchester to London, by way of these opening credits, we find out that he’s a police detective and he turns up to investigate a bizarre shooting. He’s given the facts as they are presumably witnessed (something which didn’t quite sit right with me from the start), of an investigation sparked off from the deaths of a man and a woman in a house. The murder itself as described conjures up those wonderful black and white monster movies from the 1940s (and through all the way through the decades to their contemporary counterparts) of the Frankenstein/Mummy/Zombie/Vampire/insert any other likely candidate here... as it shambles towards the hero who puts various bullets through said scoundrel’s body while the thing keeps on staggering towards its target. How, in real life, can this be? Chris has to go and find out and with the advice of his once girlfriend Kathleen (played by the wonderful Alice Lowe), he has to discover just what is going on so he goes undercover to see the therapist of the estate agent who let the police in, who is under suspicion and from here on in the stage is set for a film which, for the first twenty minutes or so, does successfully disorient the viewer as to whether all that prelude actually is the real set up to the story or not.

So, yeah, the first twenty minutes in and the main narrative starts to quite overtly suggest that Chris’ role as a detective is just something he’s made up in the personae of his depression ridden patient... or is it the other way around? For the first twenty minutes or so the writer/director successfully makes you doubt your own perceptions of what is going on and this is the puzzle which is boldly put in front of the audience. Actually, it turns out it’s quite an easy puzzle to solve, as all the clues are put before you and quite clearly underlined so my main problem with this whole scenario was... why would a psychoanalyst take on someone who doesn’t work for a living and presumably can’t pay the bills. I guess it’s possible he could have spent some years on an NHS waiting list but, they are very long waiting lists from what I understand and that doesn’t really help the case if you are supposed to believe that this character is possibly an undercover cop.

The film looks good and it has a certain dreamlike quality to it. The central character inhabits a world which is pretty much a land of confusion and some of the compositions are particularly nice in expressing this, such as a shot looking through the windscreen of a car at Chris and with the car presumably circling because the tops of the surrounding buildings and sky are looping around the reflection like a ferris wheel... which is another clue for the way in which the story progresses, as it happens. I also noticed the director kind of favours highlighting things at the centre of the wide aspect ratio frame and he gets some nice shot designs out of this. For example, when Chris goes to covertly rifle through a filing cabinet, we have the open doorway into the room holding said filing cabinet through which we watch Chris, with a blank wall on the left and another, unopened door filling the right of screen, firmly focusing your attention on the antics of the central character.

The soundtrack helps too, with Waen Shepherd’s score feeling like it’s been heavily influenced by Bernard Herrmann’s scores for Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, one of a set of dialogue free sequences where Chris is following a ‘possible suspect’ feels almost like the long, pursuit and observation scene where Jimmy Stewart stalks Kim Novak in the early stages of Vertigo (another film which starts off using images portraying loops... I’ll get onto this loop idea in just a second).

Chris gets through two psychologists through the course of the movie and, if you close your eyes when the second one, Morland, is introduced, you might recognise the voice of the original Ford Prefect from the radio show The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy as this important character in the film’s narrative is played by none other than Geoffrey McGivern.

Now, the thing is, this film really does give away all the clues and the solution to the puzzle of the central narrative when Morland starts talking about the Klein bottle on this shelf, leading into him demonstrating a simple Möebius Strip and then talking about the worm Ouroboros symbol and, by this point, you’ll probably be in no doubt as to how the movie is going to end and who, in fact, are the people killed in that shoot out we hear about at the start of the story. Which is a pity because, for the first twenty minutes to half an hour, at least, the director really had me questioning things.

Ultimately, this movie is technically a thriller, in that it uses the language of the genre to present its central narrative but, if you’re expecting a straight up example of that then you might be in for a bit of a disappointment. That being said, apart form the ease with which one can unwind the central narrative, once you know the trick (and the literal translation of it would not seem out of place in an old Amicus horror piece from the 1960s), it’s not a bad movie and one which I’m sure many people will find kind of interesting, if a little laboured in some places. Not bad for a piece of British cinema with a very English stamp to it. Not the worst I’ve seen in this kind of area and worth a watch for the actors and expression of the central idea alone. So maybe give The Ghoul a go when you have a wet afternoon in the house.

Prevenge

From Fear To Maternity

Prevenge
2016 UK Directed by Alice Lowe
Screening as part of the London Film Festival
October 16th 2016

My only real proper recollection of the phenomenon that is Alice Lowe, prior to this movie, is of seeing her in Ben Wheatley’s excellent film Sightseers (reviewed by me here) and I will always have the moment stuck in my mind from that where she screams “This is not my vaginaaaaaaa!” When reading up on her, though, it turns out I’ve actually seen her in quite a few things without actually realising it. I chose Prevenge as my fourth 2016 LFF movie purely on the strength of Lowe in Sightseers and, frankly, I’m really glad I did... I saw five films at the festival this year, most of them very good in one way or another and this particular one certainly is a magnificent and shiny little masterpiece, it has to be said.

The plot is straight out of the kinds of 1980s pulpy horror paperbacks I used to read as a teenager. You know the ones? Where a baby inside a mother’s womb starts controlling the parent and manipulating the outside world, usually resulting in much bloody mayhem. I’m not implying any of those trashy novels were a direct influence in this case, far from it, but this movie could slot nicely into this genre while, at the same time, being the absolutely most amazing and strikingly sensitive portrayal of that kind of idea we’ve yet had on screen.

Lowe plays the, mostly quite tragic, protagonist Ruth. She has lost her boyfriend in a 'terrible event' before finding out she was pregnant. As the baby grows in her belly, she is compelled by the unborn child to work her way through a kill list of seven people (which actually changes at one point, but I don’t want to post any spoilers on this one), murdering them one by one as the movie progresses but, of course, since it’s Alice Lowe, the film is also a comedy and the bleakness of the situations are shot through with a strong dose of extremely funny humour which will quite possibly have you laughing out loud, even through some of the goriest set pieces showcased here. There’s a set up, for example, where Ruth’s midwife, played by Jo Hartley, says something about what Ruth will be going through in her pregnancy which comes back to haunt her during a murder scene in an absolutely hilarious moment that had the audience roaring. Again... don't want to spoil that moment here.

The film opens strongly with a scene of a pet shop owner, played by Dan Renton Skinner, showing Ruth his ‘dangerous animals’ and right from the bat we notice that the majority of the men in the movie are portrayed in a funny but extremely unsympathetic light... which works really well to help keep the audience sensitive to Ruth’s plight, to a certain extent. What with Skinner's witty but slimy innuendo, for example, or Tom Davis’ performance as the appallingly ‘orrible DJ Dan, you can’t help but side with Ruth in certain situations. Not that this film is sexist in that way. The wonderful Kate Dickie is one of a couple of women who turn up on the kill list although, it has to be said, the girls certainly don’t seem as sleazy as some of the men in this movie.

All the performances in this movie, in fact, are pretty much amazing and... as good as everyone is, I do have to still shout out Lowe in this, not least because she’s directed and starred in this, from her own script, while heavily pregnant. I mean, c’mon, that’s a feat in itself but to also turn in some of the finest acting in one of the absolute best revenge films going takes some talent. Lowe has a gift for melancholy and she expresses it amazingly well throughout the film but... she can also express a sudden burst of joy and when you see the quick contrast between the two states, as you will in the closing scene of this movie, again for reasons I can’t divulge, the audience will get an emotional rush from it, I’m sure... at least, I did.

The set up for the revenge in the film is held back and not overtly spelled out at the start of the movie. This is another of the film’s strengths because, as the story progresses, the audience can begin to piece together the truth about what has happened to Ruth’s ex-boyfriend and the events surrounding his death as the director slowly drip feeds us the necessary information as the central protagonist/antagonist works her way through her shopping list of revenge killings. It’s a smart way of doing this, actually, and you can’t fault the writing here because, what might have just ended up as a catalogue of killings, one after the other... for that’s basically what the structure is here, is lifted by the mystery of the motivation for Ruth’s actions and... well all I can say is you certainly aren’t going to get bored by this one.

Another interesting facet to Ruth’s character and the actions which her baby, whose voice we hear in Ruth’s head all the way through, compel her to take is that of her compassion for other human beings. Before she takes another person’s life she, in almost but not quite all situations, talks to the characters before they realise her intention... as she gauges if they really deserve the gory retribution she is about to serve up. We get a real feeling throughout the movie, and this is also reiterated in the words of Ruth’s midwife, that the baby is the one in control the whole time and it’s not always Ruth’s decision to get the job done, so to speak. This gives her a much more 'human' feel and is another layer which wraps us up in her experience and allows a certain empathy with a character who is, after all, a serial killer.

The end of the film is pretty cool and it leans a lot on the editing and rhythm established earlier in the movie. There's a scene where Ruth (and presumably her unborn child... nothing like a womb with a view) is watching a silent movie actress on television. I think it might be Theda Bara* but I'm not 100% on that. Anyway, the attitude and performance of this actress kinda captivates and then informs the sensibilities and confidence of Ruth, which is made clear through the associations made in the editing of that sequence and echoes of this throughout the movie. In the second to last scene in the film, Ruth is forced to ponder that there might be a different catalyst for her killing spree than she, and the audience watching, had at first realised. This is made beautifully clear in the last scene in the movie where the last two edits confirm these suspicions while at the same time celebrating them in a wonderful moment which, I suspect, may divide some audience members.

And that's all I've got for you on this one. Prevenge is, as I said before, a mini masterpiece of a movie and it's definitely a hard recommend from me. If you like revenge movies in general then I certainly think you'll like it. If you like them laugh out loud funny and, relatively, bloody then... so much the better. What I can definitely say without reservation is that it's a well written, artfully crafted and technically brilliant example of modern British cinema at its best. Seriously... don't miss this one.

* No, I was dead wrong on that account. I asked Alice about this sequence on Twitter and here is her reply... "It was an excerpt from Crime Without Passion 1934. The Furies represented by uncredited actresses. thanks for the great review! xx"

2016 London Film Festival @ NUTS4R2

Zoology (Zoologiya)
Women Who Kill
Mifune - The Last Samurai
Prevenge
Spaceship
 

Sightseers

Tramdemonium

Sightseers
2012 UK 
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Studio Canal BluRay Region B 

Warning: Some spoilers ahead on the route.

The only other film I’ve seen by Ben Wheatley was Kill List (reviewed here), which was brutally unpleasant in places and, by the time the final frames had played out, a bit of a masterpiece of modern British cinema, it has to be said. Sightseers is a different kind of movie to that one in that it’s pretty much a comedy but, even though it has a lighthearted charm all its own, it still has a raw, dark edge to the movie that, while it doesn’t confront you with anything too nasty, does leave you wondering how many people you know in real life hide a passion for murdering those they find even remotey annoying. Or more importantly, since I suspect the answer to that might be pretty high, judging by some conversations I’ve overheard in the wacky world of “commuting to work”, how many people are not able to keep that kind of angry impulse in check.

The film’s main protagonists, Tina and Chris, are played by Alice Lowe and Steve Oram and it’s interesting to note that these two actually co-wrote the screenplay, along with additional material by Amy Jump. Seeing as they get the credit for the movie in terms of its sparkling script, I’m wondering just how much of the dialogue was improvised during rehearsals and how much it was polished on the actual shoot. I don’t know anything about the work process of either of these two to be able to hazard a guess but I do know that, however this one was put together, there’s some good on-screen chemistry between the two of them and their contribution is really felt.

The film itself takes the form of a roadtrip as Tina’s new lover Chris takes her on a caravan tour of the English countryside, to include stops at a Tram Museum, a Pencil Musuem, the Blue John Cavern etc... much to the aggressive dismay of Tina’s mother. He is a budding writer and Tina is his muse, it seems, and the characters are down to earth and, basically, people you really wouldn’t mind hanging out in a pub with. However, it doesn’t take long before you realise that both of them are just a little bit twisted inside when it comes to certain things. When Chris “accidentally” runs down and kills a man for dropping litter and being rude, he gets away with it but there’s something not quite right here and after a while, Tina starts to catch on and realise that Chris has a penchant for solving his problems with fatal violence.

Ben Wheatley’s direction is both matter of fact in terms of the way it’s shot, with a lot of hand held camera, but also incredibly beautiful somehow in terms of the cinematography. It sounds like it should be a bit of a mismatch but it really isn’t. At least, not with Wheatley in charge it isn’t. Not quite sure how he walks that thin line between beautiful and ugly but he manages to capture it quite well. Of course, the breathtaking scenic joy of the English countryside is pretty amazing in itself and Wheatley nicely captures this. It’s the appreciation of this, and the affection that the two main protagonists share for each other, which allows you to not be completely alienated from them and appreciate the absurdist humour of their dark deeds.

There are some great comedy moments in here and I laughed out loud at details such as the way in which Tina realises that the second murder is, in fact, deliberate. Chris has taken his victim’s digital camera, which Tina assumes is his, and is looking at the pictures on the camera of their newly acquired (aka stolen) dog which she doesn’t realise are not shots that Chris has taken. Then she starts looking at the close up “naughty pictures” that she assumes he took of them the night before, when she was making love with him in her knitted bra and crotchless knickers... yeah, you heard that right. She has knitted, kinky underwear and, frankly, I don’t know why nobody has thought of this before... it’s fantastic. Anyway, as one of the shots comes up she looks down between her legs and goes mental, hollering at Chris... “This is not my vaginaaaaaa!” She automatically assumes that her new boyfriend has been having an affair but, no, as she clicks on she realises that Chris is a serial killer. Of course, after coming to terms with this, the relationship then starts to hit a snag as she does her own first murder, much to her new boyfriend’s dissapointment.

I won’t tell you where this goes but the film is not quite as formulaic as you might think, given the basic premise, although I did kinda guess what the final shot would be on this one (it’s a damned sight more penetrable than Kill List, that’s for sure). The acting, as you would expect from this kind of film, almost out of neccessity, is as great as the direction and cinematography and there’s some really nice musical choices on the soundtrack. I wasn’t completely blown away by the score on this one but it was certainly appropriate. I did find the choice of using two different cover versions of Donovan’s Season Of The Witch enthralling, though, and it’s rare that I find pop songs wedged into a film’s underscore as effective as these ones were, to be honest.

All in all, this was kind of the film I was expecting but without it slipping into the kind of predictable pattern I thought it would. It’s a charming piece of work from a cast and crew who really seem to have got their act together here. I’m struggling a little in this review, to be honest, because I don’t have a lot to say about a movie which is so well put together. However, if I did have to find anything slightly critical of it, it might be to say that the final sequences felt like they were just a little “rushed towards” at the end. I felt there needed to be a bit more repair and closure to the state of the relationshiop between Tina and Chris before the very last shot, if that would have been possible without telegraphing the final outcome too much (it’s one of those movies which could have gone either way in the last couple of seconds) so, I guess I would have liked another five to ten minutes towards the end, I think, to maybe give a sense of returning camaraderie, perhaps fanned by the fear that the police are closing in, before going on that final destination with the characters. But, honestly, that’s only because I enjoyed the characters so much and sometimes it’s easy to forget that great movies stem, not from their story, but from the way the characters are put together... and Sightseers is nothing if not a film about lovable characters. Unhinged and slighly round the twist, perhaps, but still lovable for all their faults. Faults like brutally murdering people with rocks and sticks, for example.

Sightseers is a truly great, little gemstone which reveals its dark treasures at a leisurely pace but without ever getting complacent by resting on the laurels of the main characters. The people these two encounter as they murder their way through the great outdoors are all good little character pieces in their own right and the tension and release between Chris and Tina as they try to get a measure for each other keeps you drawn in and watching intently, trying to catch all the little details, like Chris’s smirk to himself after his first murder or the subtle, unspoken messages between the two of them as their eye contact communicates their murderous intent to each other in the face of adversity. A nice little British movie which shows off our beautiful countryside and showcases the kind of quirky, and often grim, humour our country is perhaps best known for internationally. This one’s definitely worth a watch.