d./w. Steve Stone; p. Lionel Hicks, Alan Latham; cast: David
O’Hara, Isabelle Allen, Lisa Gormley, Toyah Willcox, Neil Pearson, Bill Fellows
Stone follows the impressive but generic Entity and (frustratingly
unreleased) psycho-thriller Schism with this relentlessly creepy
nightmare. O’Hara is superb as Alex, a busy
businessman who comes home to his wife and 12-year-old daughter in a state of
high tension. A weird-looking storm is rolling in across the countryside, a rowan
tree in the garden has died, and Alex is hearing his family say inexplicable
things that they haven’t said. It’s fairly clear early on that nothing is real
and the resolution was obvious and expected even before the original title, In
Extremis, was changed to this clangingly unsubtle new one. Nevertheless a
brilliant lead performance, Stone’s unerring direction and some great visual
effects make for a thoroughly satisfying movie. Name-value actors Willcox and
Pearson cameo as a patient and a doctor in the third act; Toyah also sings over
the credits. Fellows is a homeless man near the start. Shot in 2015, this
premiered (under its shooting title) at the East End Film Festival in June
2016.
- Released on VOD platforms on 11th February.