FRIGHTFEST PRESENTS: THE LESSON. (2016) DIRECTED BY RUTH PLATT. STARRING ROBERT HANDS, EVAN BENDALL, MICHAELA PRCHALOVÁ, RORY COLTART AND JOSHUA WEDGE. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
If you like a horror film that has
pretty much the whole history of English literature contained within
it, then boy! Are you in for
a lovely surprise, heh-heh-heh. If, on the other hand, you dropped
out of school just as soon as your folks allowed it, you don't know
your Dickens from a hole in the ground and you've only heard of
ANIMAL FARM in the
context of a porno movie, then I honestly don't know what you'll make
of this unusual horror film. The
lady really knows her literary onions too, I must say.
I must
confess to being firmly in the swotty category when it comes to Eng. Lit. It
was the only subject I was any good at in school. My Maths teachers
all hated me because I was as thick as the middle cut of an
elephant's shite when it came to numbers. I made one of them cry once
with my inability to follow simple instructions. Poor Mrs. D. I
really had nothing against her. She was just doing her job. I hope
she's doing okay now.
The Phys. Ed.
teachers looked on me as the lowest form of life. That's when I
actually turned up to class, haha, and wasn't hiding in the classroom
pretending it was my time of the month. Naturally, I had my period
three Monday mornings out of every four...!
My
English teacher loved me, though. I was her star pupil. I've always
been a bookworm, so I wasn't at all unhappy with the numerous
references to classic literature in THE LESSON. In
case you haven't guessed, the film centres around a couple of school
students, and the setting is, shall we say, classroom-like.
Let's take a squint, shall we,
at the plot of this rather sick and twisted movie set in modern-day
England.
Finlay and
Joel are two barely sixteen-year-old students. They couldn't give a
toss about school and think it's a waste of time. Nothing unusual
there, you might say. They're petty thieves and vandals too and, to
them, the best part of school is tormenting their stressed-out
English teacher, Mr. Gale, who's got a sick, maybe terminally-ill
mother in hospital and a strong feeling of disappointment with the
way his life's turned out.
Fin, a
good-looking chap who actually looks like pictures I've seen of a
young Cristiano Ronaldo, is our main character. His mum is dead, his
dad is out of the picture and he lives with his older brother Jake
and Jake's sexy, flirtatious Eastern European girlfriend Mia.
The selfish
Jake seems to want rid of his little brother out of the house and there's an
attraction between Fin and Mia that can only mean trouble down the
line. Fin has no-one to turn to at a time in his life when he needs a
friend or mentor the most.
Then one beautiful twilit evening, Fin and
Joel have an encounter on a quiet road that changes the way they
think about school and learning forever...
For the
rest of the film, there's either strong bloody violence or the threat
of it. You'll probably need a strong stomach yourself to be able to handle it.
You'll see an amazing array of torture tools that actually put me in
mind of the HOSTEL films,
they were so intimidating-looking. I don't like the instruments of
torture. They're too pointy and stabby and they can be, you know,
inserted places.
Anyway,
you'll either be horrified by what's going on in the second half of
the film or you'll wholeheartedly approve, haha. After all, don't
most folks nowadays think that the kids of today are out of control
and need bringing into line? Heh-heh-heh, I'm only kidding. I ain't
getting myself into no trouble for endorsing violence against even
the most obnoxious and ASBO-riddled of rugrats...!
This
extraordinary film would have worked equally well as a non-horror
movie, believe it or not. For the first twenty minutes or, before all
the bad stuff kicked in, I was so engrossed in the scenes of Fin's
sad, crappy go-nowhere life that I would have been quite happy just
to keep watching those.
There were
heartbreaking flashbacks Fin with of his lovely, kind-hearted mum and brutal father which I
loved. A gritty domestic drama revolving around Fin, Jake and Mia,
with school scenes and scenes of Fin with his loser
mates thrown in would have made a terrific watch as well.
These are all
interesting, even intriguing characters and it would
have been no hardship to see them developed a bit more. It's just a
thought, anyway. By the way, I didn't approve of the ending. He's
only bloody sixteeen, for crying out loud...!
THE
LESSON is out on DVD this summer
(July/August 2016), courtesy of the surprisingly jolly folk at
FRIGHTFEST PRESENTS. Other
great horror flicks due to be released by the same people during the
same time-frame include LAST GIRL STANDING, THE
UNFOLDING, LANDMINE GOES CLICK
and CURTAIN. You
can get more details from www.frightfestpresents.com
if you so wish, my lovely mesdames
et messieurs.
I'll
leave you with the immortal words of the English poet William Blake
from his great work Songs
Of Experience,
but I sneakily won't tell you why, haha.
O rose,
thou art sick!
The
invisible worm
That flies
in the night,
In the
howling storm,
Has found
out thy bed
Of crimson
joy,
And his
dark secret love
Doth thy
life destroy.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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