Down Terrace
Ben Wheatley 2009
Run time: 89 min. | UK
Winner: Grand Prize – Next Wave Competition, Fantastic Fest 2009
In 2007, the people behind the venerable Mondo Macabro DVD label released their first feature film production: a Pakistani gore film called HELL’S GROUND. Now, Mondo Macabro Movies has made a 180 degree turn with DOWN TERRACE, a darkly comedic drama from Britain about the daily travails of a family of crooks trying to keep their criminal enterprise from falling apart.
DOWN TERRACE opens with Bill (Bob Hill) and his son Karl (Robin Hill) leaving a courthouse after a stint in jail. As soon as they get out, the pair try to figure out who ratted them out to the police. Its not exactly clear why Bill and Karl were locked up, but their habitual drug intake and shady dealings indicate that they are up to no good. Karl’s wife (Julia Deakin) seems nice enough, but she is intricately involved in the skullduggery that got her husband and son locked up. Various suspicious characters enter the scenario, including hated family friend Garvey (Tony Way), a hit man named Pringle (Michael Smiley) who carries his toddler to jobs, Karl’s pregnant girlfriend (Kerry Peacock), and a brutal oaf named Eric (David Schaal). Everyone suspects each other of being a snitch, and the paranoia blossoms into a deadly web of plots and schemes.
DOWN TERRACE is the directorial debut of Ben Wheatley, who along with Robin Hill, wrote the film’s script. Wheatley is known as a comedic writer for British television shows like Armando Lannuci’s TIME TRUMPET. Some of the cast, which features a mix of professionals and non-professionals, will be familiar to many through appearances on SPACED, THE OFFICE (original), and EXTRAS. Based on the pedigree of the talent, one might expect DOWN TERRACE to be a straight-up comedy. DOWN TERRACE is very funny, but the film taps into a dark vein of humor that can only come from observing a group of dysfunctional gangsters as they plan to kill each other. Wheatley uses a cinema verite camera style, which, when combined with the film’s naturalistic performances, creates the feel of eavesdropping on multiple crimes in progress. (Rodney Perkins)
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