The Owners

What? Another comic book adaption? Oh sorry, graphic novel adaption. Seriously? You can't get away from them these days. What city gets thrashed this time then? Do the heroes fly? Are they invisible or do they just shoot flames all over the shop? What do you mean stanley knives? A sledgehammer ......... Arya from Game Of Thrones ........ dementia...?

Ah go on sure I'll give it a whirl.

The Huggins (Rita Tushingham and Sylvester McCoy) are an elderly couple living a quiet life in the middle of the English countryside. They've been targeted by Nathan (Ian Kenny), a teenager with a chip on his shoulder concerning wealth, who wants money but who isn't willing to work for it. Himself and his friends Gaz and Terry have a plan involving the Huggins and the safe they have in their basement. But they haven't accounted for Nathan's girlfriend Mary (Maisie Williams) turning up or the Huggins's returning early from a night out.

There's an act of violence about halfway through The Owners and it's the point where you'll stay watching or press the stop button. It's hideously satisfying, replete with some eye popping practical effects and a crunch that will haunt your dreams but if you can get past it you'll get to enjoy a nifty little thriller/horror that starts out with Shane Meadow's style realism and ends up with shrieking campy brutality.  The English take (adapted from a French comic called Une Nuit de Pleine Lune) on the home invasion genre has always been worth a watch with films like Cherry Tree Lane, Straightheads & Emelie standing out but this one does things you won't expect and gives us a twisted interplay between characters that gives the whole thing an air of unpredictability. Their actions turn it into a nasty little chamber piece that's rough on the eyes in places but thankfully it veers away from the torture porn territory it flirts with at the last minute and becomes something slightly more palatable. Slightly.

One thing I enjoyed about this is how it messes with your allegiances throughout. At different times throughout the story you'll side with parties from both sides of the (much commented on) class divide before they say or do something that will make you shudder and it's down to the quality of the performances from Williams, Ellis, McCoy and Tushingham that this happens. These aren't people you'll necessarily want to spend time with but you won't want to see them splashed around the place either and if a horror movie can make you give a shit it's succeeded in my book. It's only late in the day when it starts getting a bit too clever, indulging in some aspect ratio shenanigans that the film suffers. Visual trickery designed to make an already claustrophobic story even moreso but all it really does is reminds you you're watching a film, therefore talking you out of the moment. A needless, annoying addition.

French Director Julius Berg's first feature film is an imperfect but twisted & promising debut and it's streaming online now if you have the constitution for it.