Review Category: Movie

The Frightfest provides a mix of the good, the bad and the indifferent. Over the years there have been many moments where you wish it could have gone better for the filmmakers.

At one screening during the festival’s tenure at the Odeon West End in 2007, director Uwe Boll had a moment of concern when an audience member stood up after a double-bill screening of Postal and Seed and openly criticised the filmmaker for what he made, though to be fair the rest of us did wonder why such a person was at Frightfest, considering that you knowingly buy a weekend pass to sample some gory and extreme delights. This is not a Disney weekend, so bemusement at the individual’s reaction was understandable.

Then, in 2012, there was Tulpa, a giallo film that premiered so soon after completion and prompted unintentional giggles amongst the audience, leading to a rather awkward Q and A session.

The laziest entry in this year’s event was Jackals and the second film after Leatherface to star Stephen Dorff. In this one he plays a cult deprogrammer who has brought the wayward son of a rurally based family back to their bosom after nailing him at the roadside. However, it isn’t before long that the cult he has been a part of for a while have sent a delegation to reclaim their ‘son’, leading to a stand-off between his family and the cult…

At the outset, Jackals looks like it is going to take the story in a different direction. Cults in cinema have been used quite effectively recently with films like Martha Marcy May Marlene with Elizabeth Olsen and there is potential to expand this story to focus on the after-effects of being within a cult and the emotional drive that could lead somebody to consequences beyond their control.

Unfortunately, you can anticipate what is going to happen, once shadowy individuals a la The Fog start to appear in the family’s back garden. It’s an old trick and has been used in the likes of House On The Edge Of The Park, Funny Games and other home invasion films over the last few decades.

The cast try hard, but the audience will inevitably feel cheated because of the tried-and-tested format of such a film like this.

In the context of the festival, there are intelligent and constructive discussions between the films by the attendees and every film is assessed and analysed for their strengths and weaknesses. The appeal of the Weekend Pass is that it allows you to look at a whole host of movies from across the filmmaking community. Jackals was certainly one of those films that was not making it into any of the fan’s best-of lists.

Jackals will probably become a fixture on the streaming market and the filmmakers and cast will doubtlessly move onto more rewarding and better work.

JACKALS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: KEVIN GRUETERT / SCREENPLAY: JARED RIVET / STARRING: STEPHEN DORFF, DEBORAH KARA UNGER, JOHNATHON SCHAECH / RELEASE DATE: OFFICIAL UK RELEASE TBA

The undercurrent of nostalgia for triumphs past in horror was clear for all to see with the last three films of the festival, with Better Watch Out aping the likes of Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night, The Terror Of Hallow’s Eve evoking the best of the Halloween franchise – and the Closing Night film on the Monday evening, Tragedy Girls, tapping into the dark side of high school mentality clear in films like Carrie and Heathers.

FrightFest fans will always look to the first and last films of the festival to get a sense of what the tempo and tone was going to be. Cult Of Chucky was a perfect opener, a franchise favourite that took Chucky and the series in a new direction. The Closing Night film, Tragedy Girls, had its moments; though, to this writer, it did run out of steam towards the end.

Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) are feisty, energetic teens with a high social media profile and the desire to achieve the greatest following on Twitter. A little more catty and extreme than the Heather clique in Michael Lehmann’s late 1980s classic, they have trapped a notorious serial killer with a desire to get him to help them carry out their vicious plan. Before long, the more popular Kens and Barbies in the school are getting theirs, amidst the inquisitive nature of the teachers they are learning from…

The film certainly starts off well and the two lead actresses pave the way with their wonderfully positive and fizzy charisma that offsets their dark and deadly deeds. Hildebrand and Shipp have got the right blend of looks and talent that will see them head in new directions if they are given the right opportunities in the future. Director Tyler MacIntyre has potential to be the new Kevin Williamson.

It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be when this film gets a general release.

We must remember that we are watching a movie like this for pure entertainment. The most astute observation about the context of this film is that within all this, the culture of high school has changed somewhat since the release of Heathers and we must remind ourselves that death and tragedy in high school is all the more real than it was back in the 1980s. Recent events like The Dark Knight cinema tragedy and Columbine have highlighted how fragile life is. In the UK, with all manner of terror attacks and the use of social media, we understand that as much.

We am not saying that films like Tragedy Girls should not be made any more. Filmmakers have a duty to convey the dark messages and subtexts of life. Equally, we should all give ourselves the opportunity to live lives as positively as possible. Horror remains alive as ever and films like Tragedy Girls still need to be given the platform to be made.

TRAGEDY GIRLS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: TYLER MACINTYRE / SCREENPLAY: CHRIS LEE HILL, TYLER MACINTYRE/ STARRING: BRIANNA HILDEBRAND, ALEXANDRA SHIPP, JOSH HUTCHERSON / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA

A tale of revenge and the cutest little trickster you ever did saw… yep, it’s Todd Tucker’s The Terror of Hallow’s Eve and another flashback to ‘80s ‘kids’ come good’ horror, but with a little further machination.

Described by Tucker as starting with a quasi-documentary, we meet his younger self as Tim. He spends his days mooning at the horror film monster models that rule his life in the absence of the beloved dad with whom the beasties form a remaining, vital connection. His mum (Sarah Lancaster as Linda) tries to help but struggles to balance her increasingly bizarre son’s strange humour and neighbour-baiting behaviour with her own graveyard shifts at a hospital. The problem is that the pages of his comics won’t save Tim when he attracts the ire of the local bullies and is duly mashed. Until, that is, a creature comes to life and offers him a way out.

For an eighties throwback, The Terror of All Hallow’s Eve is joyfully vicious. In order for the plot to work, it’s vital that Caleb Thomas’ Tim puts in a performance (albeit aided by atmospheric lighting) that gets over the anger and libidinous frustration of the hormonal teenage boy. This is offset by Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) as a folkloric but apparently relatively innocuous genie-jester with big, sad eyes and a sweet little hat. After all, Tucker is an effects technician and has worked on everything from Mrs Doubtfire to Watchmen.

For a while you expect the action to be cutesy kid drama where the bad guys get punished, particularly as the pretty but personality-lacking potential girlfriend and bullies (based on the directors’ own tormentors though they are) are largely stock types whipped from The Simpsons. But in true Tales of the Crypt-style, Tim’s has got more than he bargained for.

SFX, depending on your point of view, is where the film passes the horror fan test with flying colours or falls apart. The action switches from an eerie character study to a case of ‘is that an animatronic in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me’? Emotionally manipulative, queasy set pieces straight out of Young Sherlock Holmes and Stephen King’s IT are replaced by big nasty beasties that look good, but evidently, don’t have anything other than wires inside them. It begins to feel empty. Perhaps a bit Poltergiesty in terms of sheer scale, but empty. Furthermore, while the conclusion at least sticks to its guns despite the all-American charm of the hero, the postscript feels tacked on and a little bit of overacting doesn’t help matters. The cautionary tale ultimately becomes timely reminder on sticking to a narrative style, particularly when the first half of the script is often pure poetry.

The Terror of Hallow’s Eve mixes old-fashioned movie magic with psychologically more daring horror. That said, more monsters don’t make things merrier but if the psychology exists, they’re real.

THE TERROR OF HALLOW’S EVE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: TODD TUCKER / SCREENPLAY: RONALD L. HALVAS, TODD TUCKER, ZACK WARD / STARRING: CALEB THOMAS, SARAH LANCASTER, ANNIE READ, JT NEAL / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Shotgun between the story of a crap wrestler’s legacy, junkies in the motel business, a ne’er-do-well with a nifty motor and interests in the organ trade and a crim with an unfortunate tattoo and you have Ryan Prow’s Lowlife, an inspired story reminiscent in a style of Horror Channel FrightFest ‘15’s They Call Me Jeeg… with the caveat that some heroes are real.

A perfect antidote to WASP infestation slashers, this feature pulls enough narrative folds to make Tarantino’s head spin but in doing so really evokes the horror, humour and bloody-minded hope of poverty. It is far more of a thriller than a horror film, the main 18+ focus being a couple of very gory set pieces that’ll demand your eyes and muddle your guts. But the reason you watch this film is for the characterisation and the warmth.

Acting, here, is routinely superb. This is actually quite a feat considering how outrageous the characters are on paper. Avoiding spoilers, one section focuses on a chap called Randy (Jon Oswald) who’s basically a criminal Eminemogram with a heart of gold and one Keith (Shaye Ogbonna), a mild-mannered accountant who is nevertheless nifty with his fists. Watching these two debate race while one has a large swastika across his face is a delightfully peculiar surprise with a fantastically surreal comic streak. The film is genuinely very funny in places, not least in the sections involving Ricardo Adam Zarat as El Monstruo, a never was who has let down his father’s legacy by being (comparatively) little but able to flip out, cartoon-style, should the need arise when hired as a local rent-a-thug, mask and alll. He switches between avenging angel and raving old ‘wrassler’ in a way that seems almost a photo negative of Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.

Lowlife manages to have heartfelt authenticity, too. Nicki Micheaux (as Crystal) manages to anchor the chaos to reality and emotional sequences about the real effects of poverty are made to first seem terribly strange and desperately sad then emotionally terrific when you realise how clever the editing is – you root for the characters because of what they’ve gone through and what they’re trying to do rather than what they’ve done. It is wonderfully written. They’re good people to whom fate has effectively flipped the bird. The simple fact that not all of the action resolves itself happily gives the film a level of emotional depth that stops the later stages from veering too much into farce, faux-feelgood or a ‘blaze of glory’ effectsathon. Visually peculiar though the ending is, it makes its own sense as well as being appropriate to aspects of the Mexican folk scene.

The lustre of Lowlife is that it doesn’t pull its punches but finds beauty and a curious humanity in the chaos of the crime-ridden city. Prow’s movie’s a sucker punch for daring filmmaking with characters that prove hope’s possible.

LOWLIFE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: RYAN PROWS / SCREENPLAY: TIM CAIRO, JAKE GIBSON, SHAYE OGBONNA, RYAN PROWS, MAXWELL MICHAEL TOWSON / STARRING: NICKI MICHAEUX, RICARDO ADAM ZARATE, JON OSWALD, SHAYE OGBONNA / RELEASE DATE: TBC

A perfect family home filled with a MILF (Virginia Madsen) and a metrosexual dad is left to a babysitter and her charge one Christmas evening. Writer/director Chris Peckover’s Better Watch Out is called such with good reason. This is not – we repeat – this is not Gremlins Anew: The Reconstituted Batch. If you are a fan of Stephen King’s early writing, this is for you.

The story starts with typical teen boy capers with Luke (Levi Miller) and buddy Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) talking about a lady they’d like to know a little better. Problem is, said damsel is way out of their league. This quickly ceases to be the main concern as it seems something with less than romantic intentions is outside the house.

Better Watch Out is a hugely welcome Christmas horror precisely because it is so unexpected. That it is only Peckover’s second feature is remarkable. It sets up genre tropes before dashing them like broken baubles into a fire and makes something fresh from those sparkling smithereens (hat tip to Olivia DeJounge – her Ashley is more calmly resilient than Rudolph on the big night out). The monster is something so believably bad to the bone that when the action gets nasty the resounding silence, cutaways and palpable emotion from the other characters magnify the shock because we automatically use that little-remembered muscle called imagination to paint the picture for us. This internal focus also makes it easier to follow the steps of the plot and appreciate the personalities on show. Miller (Peter in Pan) brings burning realism to a difficult role for someone of his age. He doesn’t always manage the intensity arguably required, but he does more than enough to keep the film afloat. Oxenbould’s chirpy-derping Garrett swiftly brings up the rear and prevents the film from becoming perhaps too grim for the Goodwill season’s standard audience.

Set design and decoration by Richard Hobbs and Mark Dawson are fantastic. The film focuses on the contrast between the villain’s dead-souled stare and the trappings of the family home complete with rooftop reindeer. You really do get a sense of space in which people live together without really knowing each other through the chasm that is the teenage years. It even manages to subvert stereotypes to make you root for unlikely characters along the way. What’s more, the realisation that there won’t be a Home Alone-style villain’s guffaw to let the audience off the hook at every transition encourages us to will the action further so the story can reach its logical conclusion. And it is all entirely logical.

Better Watch Out plays the audience at their own game. It pleasures and punishes them for trying to pre-guess its gifts. It is deeply unnerving and adorably sinister.

BETTER WATCH OUT / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: CHRIS PECKOVER / SCREENPLAY: ZACH KAHN, CHRIS PECKOVER / STARRING: PATRICK WARBURTON, VIRGINIA MADSEN, DACRE MONTGOMERY, OLIVIA DEJONGE / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Every generation of filmmaking will yield an opportunity to see where the fusion of technology and fantasy will take them. In the 1980s it was the likes of Brainstorm and Dreamscape, in the 1990s it was The Lawnmower Man and The Matrix.

Getting its European Premiere in one of the Discovery screens during Horror Channel FrightFest 2017, Kurtis David Harder’s Incontrol updates the concepts of the earlier examples for the social network generation and provides another intriguing and thought-provoking idea and concept for the intellectual mindset to mull over amongst others. It is similar in tone to the recent Friend Request.

University student and barista Samantha (Anja Savcic) is invited by fellow student Mark (Levi Meaden) to try out a new piece of technology that allows the users to get involved in the lives of others without causing any discrepancy in their daily routines. The first taste of what can occur happens when Samantha experiences a student party, but upon re-emerging from there, Samantha gets an outline of the various rules that will enable her to utilise the device without going insane in the process….

Incontrol is a slickly made piece of virtual reality drama, with a hint of Flatliners thrown in (incidentally, the new Ellen Page update version of the 1990 cult hit is trailering on YouTube now). It has a competent cast and a well-written screenplay to boot and like all smarter-than-average dramas like this, you are drawn into the concept of whether something is real or not in a cinematic context.

The film benefits from a compact production style. Naturally, in hindsight, you could go the route of a big-budget Hollywood film, but the intimacy of the piece is just as beneficial without a subplot involving a Government agency wanting to use the device for bigger needs – like Brainstorm explored in Trumbull’s cult 1983 film. The cast is excellent, led by Savcic as the individual whose own curiosity about what she is experiencing adds to the overall paranoia the technology is infusing in her and others.

Some may think it doesn’t have anything to add to the discussion, given that other films have explored the idea and world of virtual reality, but on balance, Incontrol does work as well as, if not better than, some of the other films. Harder does have a savvy eye for the material and does take some time to explore what his subject matter is about.

That said, this film does suffer a little bit from where the line between truth and fantasy lies, but that is partly a challenge for an audience to debate where and with whom the experience is happening. It’s an age-old idea and it never hindered the critical and commercial prospects of another example, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which played on the audience right through to the last frame.

INCONTROL / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: KURTIS DAVID HARDER / STARRING: BRITTANY ALLEN, CHRIS BALL, CAROLINE BUZANKO / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Making its European Premiere at Frightfest 2017 as part of the Discovery Screen scheduling, Iranian /American film-maker Natasha Kermani’s Imitation Girl evokes memories of The Man Who Fell To Earth and John Carpenter’s Starman, but provides a refreshing slant on both those earlier movies and Kermani is to be saluted for creating one of the most thought-provoking and tenderly filmed cult science fiction films of the 21st Century.

Crash-landing in the middle of the South-Western American desert, a liquid alien form assumes the identity of a discarded magazine cover star, Julianna (Lauren Ashley Carter), a porn star and model making a living in New York City. Julianna is not aware of the arrival of her imitation and is struggling with her own journey, with a drug addiction and questionable relationships.

Meanwhile, the imitation finds a surrogate home with an Iranian brother and sister, who are both fascinated and mystified by her. In turn, unaware of her origins, they begin to help her to overcome her alienation and detachment from the world. The alien is very receptive to language and actions and learns to communicate effectively and quickly in her bid to find her place on this planet…

It is an absolutely refreshing delight to encounter a science-fiction film with a strong female protagonist that isn’t gung-ho, as well as an alien arrival film that doesn’t rely on that huge CGI-battle and great shocks in the process a la Independence Day. Kermani has such adept feeling and passion for the subject and brings her cross-cultural background to good use. At a brisk 84 minutes running time, the film certainly keeps the interest flowing.

Imitation Girl rises and falls on the efforts of it’s leading lady – and Lauren Ashley Carter is so, so good in the dual role of Julianna and the title role, conveying the desperation of a struggling model in the former, whilst generating the wide-eyed curiosity of the latter as she makes her way in the world. The Last Starfighter and Night of the Comet fans will also cheer with the brief-but-pivotal supporting appearance of Catherine Mary Stewart, barely recognisable as an old acquaintance of Julianna.

At a short and solid eighty-four minute running time, Imitation Girl keeps the attention and the dual character arcs are effectively realised. Like The Man Who Fell to Earth, the cinematography adds strength and clarity to the story with wide landscape shots, juxtaposed with the locality of New York. It also incorporates diversity and sexual issues without preaching and doesn’t short-change the ideas at its heart and climax.

One hopes that Imitation Girl will find an audience beyond the FrightFest and genre festival circuit, as it has much to offer like other recent sci-fi classics such as Ex Machina.

IMITATION GIRL / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: NATASHA KERMANI / STARRING: LAUREN ASHLEY CARTER, NEIMAH DJOURABCHI, ADAM DAVID THOMPSON / RELEASE DATE: TBC

‘Ka is a wheel, its one purpose to turn’, is what Stephen King allowed us to believe throughout his epic fantastical book series, The Dark Tower. This has similar implications to our very own ‘circle of life’; yet after assessing Hollywood’s highly disappointing adaptation, it’s clear that the wheel ran off-course a long time ago.

With fleeting references to the broader themes, characters and scope of The Dark Tower novels, director Nikolaj Arcel never manages to lay down a potent foundation for the screen. If you’ve marvelled within the pages of King’s macabre, bittersweet creation; following Roland the Gunslinger and his beloved ka-tet, then you may too raise an eyebrow at the 90-minute runtime of this adaptation. With eight books in total, all set within a baron and mystical landscape (Mid-World), King’s material has already been tried and tested by far superior filmmakers. The impressive roster of directing talent to come and go includes Ron Howard and J.J. Abrams, in addition to would-be acting leads Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen. 

This adaptation concerns Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), a school kid who has nightmares featuring an evil warlock, beasts hiding in human form and a roguish gunman. When Jake relays these disturbing dreams back to his mum and step-dad, they have him see a psychiatrist. Now this is understandable, their son’s wild ramblings become a prominent feature in their lives – but what if such monstrous villains were real?

With the discovery of a magic portal in New York City, Jake enters the alternate reality of Mid-World – where his nightmarish visions are in fact living, breathing entities. Here he meets Roland Deschain, a legendary gunslinger, portrayed by Idris Elba. This was initially a shrewd casting choice but the British actor isn’t fed much of a script here, cursed with cheesy (not the mild kind) dialogue. Readers of King’s western inspired fantasy/horror mash up may suffer heartbreak in this instance. Blasting his way off the page, Roland is a melancholic anti-hero whose caring nature acts as a counterpoint to his true calling – the world’s deadliest sharpshooter. Arcel’s film may find moments of authentic torture in Elba’s performance, but overall he becomes just another mundane man of action. 

Walter o’Dim (The Man in Black), the series’ antagonistic wizard, is brought to scorchingly dull life by Matthew McConaughey. He is Roland’s sworn enemy and plans to disrupt the balance of reality by toppling the dark tower itself. What waits beyond this notion is a legion of dark forces that could change the face of the universe. Jake and Roland spend their time together attempting to nullify Walter’s vicious ploys, only for blood and death to accompany them.

Unfortunately, this adaptation fails on almost every conceivable level, whether it’s from a fan’s perspective or a newbie’s. The characterisation is string-like thin, the majority of the acting is wooden and in some circumstances, laughably theatrical. In this day and age of technological advancement and mind-bending cinematic possibilities, even The Dark Tower’s special effects are instantly forgettable. You’ve been warned.

THE DARK TOWER / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: NIKOLAJ ARCEL / SCREENPLAY: AKIVA GOLDSMAN, JEFF PINKNER, NIKOLAJ ARCEL / STARRING: IDRIS ELBA, MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, TOM TAYLOR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected rating: 7/10

Final rating:

It was the hottest ticket of the weekend and we all had time to reflect on Sunday when it was announced that Tobe Hooper had died the day before.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is the one film this writer has seen in more formats than any other. Firstly on a full-length Super 8 copy, then VHS in the early 1980s during the video library boom in the UK, then on 35mm, DVD, Blu-Ray and then finally in 4K Digital during Frightfest 2010, when Hooper was the Total Film Icon. We have seen all the sequels, including the two Michael Bay reboots, and were eagerly anticipating the new Leatherface reimaging by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo.

So, where does the new film fit in in the grand scheme of things (a question somebody posed to the filmmakers in the post-screening Q and A)?

Leatherface opens in 1955 (astute observers will note that, time-wise, this is two years before Wisconsin’s favourite Ed Gein carried out the despicable acts that inspired both Psycho and the original Chainsaw) with the murder of a young woman, lured to a remote farm off the country road by a boy wearing a cow head.

The local police, led by Sheriff Hal Hartman (Stephen Dorff) waste no time in taking the child away from his mother, Verna Sawyer (Lili Taylor) – and commit him to a mental hospital. Ten years later, Verna arrives with a top lawyer in tow, but is rebuked by the head psychologist at the hospital because of the circumstances around her son. Desperate, she seeks her son, and a revolt breaks out, leading to a mutiny and escape by four of the patients, who kidnap nurse Lizzy (Vanessa Grasse).

It isn’t long before Hartman is in pursuit, determined to wreak his own form of vengeance on the escapees….

One of the picks from Frightfest 2017 attendees, Maury and Bustillo have wisely combined the energy of Hooper’s original film with a broad canvas that keeps the legend alive. Lili Taylor is brilliant at Verna Sawyer, encapsulating that mad matriarch performance with the vigour of somebody at home with their craft. Stephen Dorff (who also turned up in Jackals during the festival) remains as watchable as ever with his consistent performance as Sheriff Hartman. A shout out is in order as well for Vanessa Grasse as Lizzy, an attractive actress with a bright future.

We must stress that Leatherface is not going to come up to the level of Hooper’s legendary 1970s iconic classic, partly because this is a prequel to the original film and has been explored in the Michael Bay films. Indeed, there has already been some criticism because it treads a similar path.

However, this is only a minor gripe in the latest addition to the Chainsaw universe. It’s a love letter to the fans – and a fitting tribute to the creator, who received his last ever Executive Producer credit on this film.

LEATHERFACE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTORS: JULIEN MAURY, ALEXANDRE BUSTILLO / SCREENPLAY: SETH M. SHERWOOD / STARRING: STEPHEN DORFF, LILI TAYLOR, VANESSA GRASSE / RELEASE DATE: OFFICIAL UK RELEASE DATE TBA

Making a film using live actors set against and entirely digital backlot – think Sin City (2004) – is a monumental challenge for the even the deep pockets of Hollywood’s most ambitious money-men. Making such a film independently, with a limited to non-existent budget in a barn in Lincolnshire, well, that’s something else entirely. Bold, foolish perhaps? Perhaps a combination of the two, but it is a project taken on by debut filmmakers Chris Clark and Richard Dutton and now, finally, after several years of hard work Shadows Of The Stranger is finally getting a release.

Without getting into the baffling complexities of how this film even exists, the basic premise is as such. In said barn, the filmmakers constructed a blue screen studio and acted out scenes from the film before adding in virtually everything in post-production. Utilised by larger studio productions to either present a “reality” (The Jungle Book (2016)) or a stylised graphic novel (Sin City), here Clark and Dutton have created a world that, while visually recognisable as “modern day”, has a visual aesthetic akin almost to a video game cut scene. In truth, the nearest likeness, while wildly different in theme, would be 1982’s Tron, which offered a similar visual note of actors supplanted into a digital world.

The interesting thing with Shadows Of A Stranger, though, is that after adjusting to the visuals some ten or so minutes in, you forget you’re watching something almost entirely digital. There are moments initially that stand out for the wrong reasons; a sense of a character floating as they walk down a street, a door being slammed that carries no weight – simple things usually taken for granted but that trigger alarm bells for the senses. Latterly, these irritations largely disappear and you find yourself drawn into the story, as you would hope with any film.

To the backdrop of a grisly murder, a return of an annual festive killing spree from The Christmas Reaper, private detective David Sherborne (Ian Mude) is tasked with finding the estranged son of a wealthy patron (Colin Baker). His path crosses that of loner Xander (Clark), whose “abilities” lead them close to solving both mysteries.

As atmospheric as the film becomes, there are further issues. The dialogue often feels under-written, as if sections of the script were pasted into others, giving scenes a lob-sided, underwritten feeling. And, given the number of inexperienced members in the cast, moments of awkwardness are perhaps understandable, but do still threaten to draw you out of the world so painstakingly created. Issues, yes, but it seems almost churlish to focus on negatives given what the filmmakers have achieved.

Filmmaking such as this should be admired and respected, wherever it comes from. Without those prepared to take a chance we would be left with by-the-numbers fare that barely warrants or deserves an emotional response. No, Shadows Of A Stranger deserves an audience, not only for the ambition and skill demonstrated by the filmmakers, but also because, in the end, it’s a pretty good film.

SHADOWS OF A STRANGER / CERT: TBC / DIRECTORS: CHRIS CLARK, RICHARD DUTTON / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD DUTTON / STARRING: IAN MUDE, COLIN BAKER, CHRIS CLARK / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA