Featured Movies
Partners
Long Time Dead
British take on the teen horror format starring EastEnders' Joe Absolom as a student who dabbles with a Ouija board - with fatal consequences
On the face of it, this film fits precisely in with the American teen horror genre, with pert stars and cheap thrills. In this case it's eight attractive students who dare each other to try a Ouija Board, which worryingly spells out the words "All Die". Once they start popping off one by one, Final Destination-style, the race is on to break whatever curse has dealt them this fate. But there are no Scream masks here, and - sadly - precious little self-mocking humour. For this is a British production (from the low budget arm of Working Title, WT2), in which spliffed-up twentysomethings slum it in dodgy clubs without a jock or a prom queen in sight. Instead of being ranked by coolness, the eight are characterised predominantly by accent: there's a Scot, Liam (Newman), a Londoner, Rob (Absolom), a northerner, Lucy (Thomason), a Yank (Haas, Mars Attacks!), two pretty southern girls, Annie (Gutteridge) and Stella (Belmont, The War Zone), older Spence (Hillier) and outsider Joe (Raido) Their roles and relationships are only slightly fleshed out as the film moves from a promisingly suspenseful beginning - the foreboding Ouija board and the early death scenes, which gain added tension from a few false starts - to a muddled, hurried end which fails to do justice to the plot's dramatic potential. Some crucial plot points are slipped in so casually it would be easy to miss them - particularly in a storyline about Liam's mysterious father, which leaves viewers with a frustrating lack of detail. More trivial subplots, meanwhile, are over-emphasised with heavy-handed dialogue - in the absence of visible sexual tension between characters, we have to be told that Spence was "thinking about having sex with Annie, like everyone else". The film looks good, however, and it offers a decent portrayal of its sub-culture. Bravo to director Marcus Adams, then, for attempting to bring a bit of Brit grit into a US genre. He has, at least, indicated that we could do a decent teen horror flick - if not this time. |
