A Lonely Place to Die

Directed by Julian Gilbey. Starring Edward Speleers, Kate Magowan, Melissa George, Karel Roden, Sean Harris, Alec Newman 15A cert, gen release, 99 min

COMING A WEEK after the astonishing jolt of horrific energy that was Kill List,this strange British thriller was – despite frequent outbreaks of extreme violence – always going to seem more than a little anaemic.

Mind you, even without that sobering comparison to draw on, one would still feel compelled to mention the muddled storytelling, creaky dialogue and uncertain pace. There is, however, much to enjoy here. With a touch of script doctoring, A Lonely Place to Diemight even have generated a minor cult.

The film starts rather brilliantly. While risking limbs in some remote part of Scotland, a group of climbers encounter a pipe rammed into a deserted field. Faint cries emerge from its mouth. After digging down, they discover a Serbian child trapped in a wooden box. Aware that the supposed kidnappers may be lurking nearby, the gang splits into two groups. One takes the girl along a winding road towards the nearest settlement. The other takes a short cut down (uh oh!) a notoriously treacherous escarpment.

So far, so lean. Then it all starts to get needlessly overcomplicated. One gang of gap-toothed locals appear upon a high place and train their rifles on the heroes. Then another gang of even more frightening maniacs direct their own firearms towards the beardy hicks. But what’s this? A third cadre of untrustworthy individuals is making its way towards the field of action.

Julian Gilbey, director of the hooligan flick Rise of the Footsoldier, fails to extricate his film from a serious identity crisis. A dream sequence points us towards slasher territory before the film lurches suddenly at John Boorman's Deliverance. The final conflagration takes place at a class of pagan festival because (and, from what we can see, only because) something similar happened in The Wicker Man.

There are, perhaps, three excellent films bursting to get out of one modestly diverting one. Give it a go if you've already seen Kill Listtwice.