Produced by Portishead co-founder the musician-producer, this scabrous if slight first film casts a critical gaze on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Self-serving pillhead David (Marc Bessant) first robs an unconscious dealer, then in a later recollection tries to break into his own parents. In no time, he's overturned in the remains of his car in a woodland – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Woodsman (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for townies, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”
Unsteady Opening and Grimly Amusing Duel
The film begins uncertainly, lingering excessively on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his safety harness, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his everyday life. The bigger point – that the rave-era youth were primarily out for themselves – is firmly made. But these brief episodes are insufficiently developed to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Woodsman arrives, enraged after David kills his dog. Still, a darkly funny duel takes hold – David desperate to escape; the Poacher denying his container of cider, determined to soaking him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley.
Stylish Imagery and Music Video Vibe
There is only one key story turn, but it leads to a comically executed rampage on the forest trails that dips close to folk horror. Director John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was focused intently doing impressionistic closeups of insects in the light in the opening part, he now lets rip with the full lysergic 21-gun salute, accompanied by a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. The movie resembles an elongated music video than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings and others into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.
Game releases in British and Irish theaters from November 17.
