SIGHTSEERS

Director: Ben Wheatley

Screenplay: Steve Oram, Alice Lowe
Starring: Steve Oram, Alice Lowe
Killers have never been this close knit

After his first film (“Down Terrace”) and the critically acclaimed “Kill list”, the third film by UK director Ben Wheatley has been eagerly anticipated by fans of his work, and those who are generally interested in home-grown genre artists in general. “Sightseers” is released nationally on the 30th November, and comes to us already laden with festival plaudits and superlative reviews in the general media. So what can you expect from the film and is it really as impressive as we’ve been led to believe…

To begin with, I’ll just state that “Kill List” was a film that I admired and appreciated, rather than really liked (Phrase @copyrighted by The Back-handed compliment company). Without spoiling it for those that haven’t seen it yet, the mash-up of gritty crime drama and horror genre, didn’t personally work for me, and neither did the ambiguity of the climax. But a lot of people don’t agree with me on that (and many other things come to think of it ...). So I had a bit of trepidation before seeing the film, in case the film veered too much between comedy and horror, and making neither of the elements work. I needn’t have worried though. “Sightseers” is a terrifically British black comedy, which merges the banal with random acts of violence, genuinely funny one-liners, and surreal situations.

The film starts with Chris (Steve Oram) and Tina (Alice Lowe) getting ready to leave on a camping holiday, with a state-of-the-arse Caravan. It’s a relatively new relationship of 3 months, and Tina’s domineering bitch-cow of a Mum isn’t happy. In fact Tina’s Mother has a grudge against her daughter, ever since an unfortunate incident with the family dog, a squeaky toy, and some knitting needles! Anyway, Chris has the agenda sorted out for the next week or so. Remember those bizarre tourist attractions that your parents insisted on taking you to whenever you were touring the UK hotspots? Chris does, and he wants to visit the best of them in the Northern Counties.  Crich Tramway Museum, Keswick Pencil Museum, etc. (NB: These ARE real attractions). All ready to be ticked off and enjoyed. However, a couple of “accidents” later, and some messed-up corpses onwards, it becomes clear that Chris and Tina are kindred spirits in more ways than just a shared interest in niche museums and gift-shop tat!

The success of “Sightseers” depends on the audience reaction to Chris and Tina. Luckily these are superbly brought to life by the joint talents of Steve Oram and Alice Lowe. At a Q&A session, they stated that the Brummie couple were their own creations from previous shows and improvisations, and come out of the idea of two boring caravan enthusiasts being serial-killers. Oram is perhaps best known as “Donnie the Tramp” in “The Mighty Boosh”. Lowe is the archetypical I-know-that-face comedy actress, who played the lead in “Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place”, and many BBC sketch shows. Their performances are faultless here. They are basically adult-kids, with a sense of naivety and joy in simple things. They are (at least initially) endearing to the audience, because their victims are people that we’ve all waved an imaginary gun at! The litter-bug, the boisterous kids, noisy hippies, etc. “They’re not innocent people” says Chris “They’re Daily Mail readers”. Quite. Even when the crimes get out of hand, you can’t help rooting for them, if only for the simple pleasure and goals that they seek.  Some of the violence is quite brutal, particularly one pompous victim who gets pummelled to pulp by Chris, whilst accompanied on the soundtrack by John Hurt reading the lyrics to “Jerusalem”! Wheatley says this was intended, as he never wanted the victims to be seen as merely cyphers or objects to be abused by the couple. No A-Team or PG-13 violence here folks!

The film does come up with some gut-bustlingly funny moments to offset the occasional violence. It’s the dead-pan deliveries by Lowe and Oram that really sell it. Whether; it’s Tina bellowing “That’s not my vagina!!” on finding a stolen camera with previous photos stored, the ridiculous sight of Tina writing a Dear-John letter with the biggest pencil in the world, or the couple lovingly laying out knitted lingerie on the caravan bed (including crotch-less knickers!!).The droll delivery is just fantastic.

Also worth noting, is the subtle “power-struggle” in the relationship, which alternates at various points between Chris and Tina, and provides a nice dimension to the narrative. Full marks also to Wheatley for the very strong soundtrack.

Whilst a lot of reviews have clearly stated this to be the “best Brit (genre) film of 2012”, I still have a soft spot for the underrated “Cockneys Vs. Zombies”, “Grabbers” and “Tower Block”, but this is still up there with the best of the UK genre films this year, and it HAS been a very good year for home-produced genre … for a change.

So all in all, a wonderful little film for Christmas to demonstrate the power of love. Sod “It’s a Wonderful Life”! Go and see Chris and Tina living the dream! Who knows, you might even get an idea for a holiday. Just try not to kill anybody …

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