When middle class couple Christine and Michael sit down to their dinner one evening, the last thing they expected was a group of thugs to barge into the house looking for their son, Sebastian. When the gang learns that Seb is out for the evening, they decide to make themselves at home and await his return. What started as a quiet night in front of the telly will change the family’s lives forever.
Amongst other things, I expected this film to be bold, brutal and thought provoking and on some level it is. However, for me personally, it fails to match the impact of writer/director Paul Andrew Williams’ stunning debut London to Brighton. That doesn’t mean it’s a total loss however.
The young actors are impressive here – far more than their adult co-stars, but then that’s probably down to the script which gives its antagonists better characterisation and much more to do as opposed to the bland, thinly drawn parts written for the adults.
There is genuine tension throughout the film’s scant 74 minute run time as two very different socio-economic classes meet under the worst circumstances imaginable, but nothing is resolved and the protagonists (especially Michael) make the kind of idiotic choices akin to a really bad cliché ridden 80s slasher film.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Definitely worth seeing if you’re a fan of Paul Andrew Williams or hoodie/home invasion horror flicks but don’t expect to be blown away, as sadly the director and the sub-genre have provided us with far better works in recent years.
