The young cast of this clever thriller undertake a hair-raising manor house heist, but it’s Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham who steal the show
This nifty thriller, set mostly in a grand manor house deep in the
British countryside, has an impressively evil streak and a clever twist or two that perhaps are not hard to see coming if you’re experienced in the genre. Even so, director Julius Berg, who has worked mostly in French TV and makes his feature debut here, has a knack for ratcheting up suspense and finessing the technicalities in order to maximise the creepiness. For example, the sound design (by Ben Baird) is outstanding, an almost palpable entity that shimmers with synthesiser drones and distorted noises generated by the plot. Elsewhere, when the violence and anxiety reaches its zenith, the film switches aspect ratio to a boxy, nearly square format, heightening the claustrophobia; it’s the sort of thing you might not notice at first but affects the viewing experience in subtle ways.