Recently seeing the very good Urban Ghost Story (1998-also reviewed) I started looking for another British Horror title. Digging into my pile of DVD's,I found a movie that I've been meaning to watch for ages, but had forgotten.
View on the film:
Transferring to cinema after being co -creator of the Hayley Atwell- starring TV mini-series Life of Crime (2013), co-writer (with James Hall) / director Oliver Frampton makes a directing debut which is strongly rooted to the Kitchen Sink British TV plays, via Frampton & cinematographer Eben Bolter sitting in with Tommy (played with a great naturalistic emotional rawness by Clem Tibber) under harsh, limited light, and cramped tracking shots unlocking a claustrophobic atmosphere.
Holding back from ghostly sightings until a final 15 minutes rush of blood to the head, Frampton subtly layers Paul Frith's whispering score and the slamming of doors/ yelling round the rough block of flats, with an eerie scratching at the walls and patter of feet running across the floor in the next flat, the noises of which dig into Tommy's anxiety.
Digging into the history of the flat, the screenplay by Hall and Frampton keep the chills grounded to human Horror,via linking the ghostly haunting to childhood neglect, as Tommy's optimism gets crushed in the crumbling flat that he is squatting in with his abrasive dad, with the only glimmer of hope, being developing a friendship with the also forgotten Carmen.
Keeping the ghostly antics grounded to the forgotten children of neglect, the writers disappointingly undermine all the build-up with frantic twists in the final 15 minutes, which lean on a hilariously large number of coincidences to have all fallen into place at t he same time,as Tommy is left forgotten.
View on the film:
Transferring to cinema after being co -creator of the Hayley Atwell- starring TV mini-series Life of Crime (2013), co-writer (with James Hall) / director Oliver Frampton makes a directing debut which is strongly rooted to the Kitchen Sink British TV plays, via Frampton & cinematographer Eben Bolter sitting in with Tommy (played with a great naturalistic emotional rawness by Clem Tibber) under harsh, limited light, and cramped tracking shots unlocking a claustrophobic atmosphere.
Holding back from ghostly sightings until a final 15 minutes rush of blood to the head, Frampton subtly layers Paul Frith's whispering score and the slamming of doors/ yelling round the rough block of flats, with an eerie scratching at the walls and patter of feet running across the floor in the next flat, the noises of which dig into Tommy's anxiety.
Digging into the history of the flat, the screenplay by Hall and Frampton keep the chills grounded to human Horror,via linking the ghostly haunting to childhood neglect, as Tommy's optimism gets crushed in the crumbling flat that he is squatting in with his abrasive dad, with the only glimmer of hope, being developing a friendship with the also forgotten Carmen.
Keeping the ghostly antics grounded to the forgotten children of neglect, the writers disappointingly undermine all the build-up with frantic twists in the final 15 minutes, which lean on a hilariously large number of coincidences to have all fallen into place at t he same time,as Tommy is left forgotten.