~~~~
Rob moves in with Kerry, but an awkward dinner party, a robbery, and a disagreement over the purchase of knock-off goods soon sees their young love put to the test. However, an unfortunate incident with a baseball bat proves a test too far. Ridiculously plot-packed, restlessly edited, and shot on scuzzy, cheap-looking video, Wheatley’s short film certainly isn’t one for the connoisseur. Never the less, it provides more than enough laughs to prove entertaining.
Two small-time gangsters – father and son – return home from court, having beaten their case, and proceed to examine all of their working and familial relationships, hoping to root out the informant they perceive to be responsible for their near-incarceration. However, household tensions – heightened by the sudden arrival of the son’s heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend – complicate matters somewhat, in Wheatley’s entertaining gangland black comedy, in which sporadic moments of sickening violence and laugh-out-loud hilarity punctuate the main narrative’s strangely compelling soap-like banality.
After an eight-month sabbatical following a job-gone-wrong in Kiev, and much to the pleasure of his financially concerned wife, Jay, a soldier-turned-hitman, is persuaded by his friend and colleague Gal to return to work for a well-paid but mysterious three-part hit. However, the increasingly unpleasant nature of the job soon has them regretting their decision, in Wheatley’s ragged, distinctively violent slice-of-lowlife drama, which gradually morphs into a disturbing slow-burn horror film. As violent as it is, though, it is more likely to appeal to metaphor-de-coding beard-strokers than genuine, gore-hungry genre hounds. A thoughtful but bloody mess, then.
After accidentally killing an obnoxious fellow tourist by reversing over him, a caravan enthusiast from Birmingham embarks on a killing spree, murdering anyone that rubs him up the wrong way during a week-long trip to Yorkshire. But, rather than sending his girlfriend of three months running for the hills, his actions only go to increase her love for him and strengthen their bond. However, when she decides to follow in his homicidal footsteps, their relationship quickly becomes fraught, in Wheatley’s frequently hilarious yet strangely touching black comedy, which features a pair of decidedly excellent comic performances. Nuts in May meets Badlands, then.
U Is for Unearthed | 2012 | ★★
A vampire is unearthed from its woodland grave by an angry mob intent upon defanging, staking, and decapitating it. Shown entirely from the perspective of the creature of the night as it flees for its life, Wheatley’s short film, made for the horror anthology movie The ABCs of Death, has a certain visceral immediacy, but feels more like a deleted scene than a fully formed work, and as such proves decidedly disappointing.
A Field in England | 2013 | ★★★★½
An alchemist’s assistant and three fleeing Roundheads escape the horrors of a Civil War battleground in search of the sweet libations of a nearby ale house. However, after coming across a mysterious Irishman – who was once loyal to the aforementioned alchemist and who, it turns out, is in league with one of the trio of absconded soldiers – the ragtag group soon finds itself under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms and digging for buried treasure. Quite unlike anything else, Wheatley’s finest film to date features gently poetic black and white imagery, full blooded yet somehow controlled performances, unpredictable plotting, and an intensely trippy, drug-induced final act – all of which combines to hugely entertaining effect.
A vampire is unearthed from its woodland grave by an angry mob intent upon defanging, staking, and decapitating it. Shown entirely from the perspective of the creature of the night as it flees for its life, Wheatley’s short film, made for the horror anthology movie The ABCs of Death, has a certain visceral immediacy, but feels more like a deleted scene than a fully formed work, and as such proves decidedly disappointing.
An alchemist’s assistant and three fleeing Roundheads escape the horrors of a Civil War battleground in search of the sweet libations of a nearby ale house. However, after coming across a mysterious Irishman – who was once loyal to the aforementioned alchemist and who, it turns out, is in league with one of the trio of absconded soldiers – the ragtag group soon finds itself under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms and digging for buried treasure. Quite unlike anything else, Wheatley’s finest film to date features gently poetic black and white imagery, full blooded yet somehow controlled performances, unpredictable plotting, and an intensely trippy, drug-induced final act – all of which combines to hugely entertaining effect.
