A beautiful stately manor house in England, located far from anyone, amid green, rolling hills. This is the setting for a home invasion tale that goes spectacularly, violently, wrong in director Julius Berg’s tense thriller.
Mary (Maisie Williams, Arya Stark from Game Of Thrones) just wants her car back from her boyfriend Nathan (Ian Kenny), so she can go to work. But Nathan is planning a home break-in with his blokes- big, klutzy Terry (Andrew Ellis) and hair-triggered hothead Gaz (Jake Curran). They are all waiting for the elderly couple- Dr. Huggins (Sylvester McCoy) and wife Ellen (Rita Tushingham) to drive away to dinner so they can smash into the home and find the safe that Terry told them was there. (Terry’s mom cleans for the old couple). Mary gets dragged inside during the robbery, the couple return home and then all hell breaks loose. To tell any more would be criminal, but suffice to say the true horror of the house is about to reveal itself.
Rita Tushingham and Sylvester McCoy are just sensational as the seemingly frail couple. Their innocence and fear in the face of the robbers seem genuine. It is only later, when disturbing incidents slowly rise to the surface, that their real faces appear- and it’s a scary sight indeed.
Based on a French graphic novel Une Nuit De Pleine Lune, the film has the gritty, dark feel of British director Pete Walker’s nightmarish films from the 70s, which featured plenty of little old ladies who were secretly lethal, and plots that took even darker turns than you ever could imagine.
(Now available in theaters, on Demand and Digital on September 4.)