Cherry Tree Lane

Writer and director Paul Andrew Williams surely knew his stuff with The Children (2008) and The Cottage (2008). Cherry Tree lane tries to make a horror about strangers invading a house but this time it's more about some hoodlums who are after the son of the house who has been clicking to the police. I can understand that for some it all looks like it could happen with themselves or their neighbours but it is a bit low on brutality or red stuff. So I won't say it was bad but it was more a flick with a message if you just watch the end. I would rather say it's a kind of thriller, drama.

What makes it more a thing that could happen to yourself is the fact that they spoke in their dialect. It surely shows how society is today but if you leave the message out of this flick then there isn't that much happening. The rape is done off-camera only to make the viewer think what will happen or what is going on upstairs. Maybe the last 10 minutes are a bit shocking for the easily offended but don't think that you will see Straw Dogs (1971) or The Last House On The Left (1972), therefore it doesn't have enough brutality or shocking moments. I can also understand why horror buffs don't like it. Just watch Inside (À l'intérieur (2007) instead if you want a gory disturbing house-invasion movie.

Mixed feelings about Cherry Tree Lane and I can understand why. Acting was rather okay but surely not an exploitation as those 70's revenge flicks.

Cherry Tree Lane is written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams. It stars Rachael Blake, Tom Butcher, Sonny Muslim, Jumayn Hunter & Ashley Chin. Plot finds middle-class couple Christine (Blake) & Mike (Butcher) suffering the ultimate home invasion hell when one night three youths force their way into the house looking for their informant son.

It's the sort of plot that could have been gleaned from The News Of The World on a Sunday morning. Whilst not as horrific as Eden Lake, or as far fetched as Harry Brown, Williams' third film unsettles from the off and has much to say along the way. We begin with a slow zoom in shot of the front of the house, a middle-class suburbia that's comforting and a world away from the horror about to be unleashed. Then inside and Williams appropriately films an untended cooking pot coming to the boil as Christine chats on the phone in the back ground, the simmer to boil motif neatly setting us up for what is to come. Told in real time, Cherry Tree Lane's story never leaves the house, claustrophobia reins as our couple are trussed up and subjected to a terrifying ordeal. Pretty sparse in set up and location, then, but this is not just an excuse for some terror. Williams goes a bit more deeper with his themes, daring to delve into the psyche of Britain's unruly youths, neatly observing cultural class division and the ever widening gap between the generations. It's darkly humorous at times too, the bleakness of which has a cheek about it as the story runs its (collision) course.

Where Cherry Tree Lane differs from other film's of its ilk is that the violence is mostly done off camera, mercifully so during one extreme passage. The power of suggestion really comes to the fore as we hear but don't see. This lack of on camera violence will disappoint those who need it in their horror diet. So be advised gore seekers, this is unlikely to be the film for you. Williams also faces the problem of trying to avoid comparisons with the afore mentioned other film's, the likes of Funny Games and The Strangers. It can be said that the home invasion format is most likely now looking a bit tired, to that end Williams' British take is likely to only resonate with the self aware British public. But it is challenging and confrontational. The ending is a little too abrupt, and perhaps inevitably-implausibility creeps in. But for the most part this is unnerving stuff, a chilling tale executed with a realism that's not found in more glossy productions: with the final shot astutely serving to keep us agitated. 8/10

Over nearly a decade of seeing films at the EIFF you naturally come across some bad films. Cherry Tree Lane falls into the category below that, the one were referring to it as "film" is an insult to other films. In short the whole "film" is a padding out of a 5 minute scene from a drama club or the like that doesn't even manage to make a full 90 minutes (estimated 75 minutes). The dialogue could easily have been improvised by the very young cast and the only directing tricks Paul seems so posses is ultra close-ups or foreground-object whilst we watch the scene in the background.

Leaving the second screening the audience were shocked at how bad the film was and for the second half, people were laughing at moments of apparent tension due to the complete lack of any substance or idea. The most laughable thing of all is this was actually up for the Audience Award! With one exception this is quite possibly the worst British film ever made (the worst being The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael).

Cherry Tree Lane is a 70 minute Funny Games/Eden lake-esque 'horror' that sees a bunch of teens terrorising a not-very-happily married couple in North London. Despite the ridiculously short running time, Cherry Tree Lane is LONG. Too long. I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness listening to the pointless conversations that this film includes. Moments include the leader, shall we say, eyeing up 42-year old Christine, telling her to stand up "to see how fit she is" whilst her husband, gagged on the floor, is yelled at "don't look round at me, blud!" So basically, it's a group of chavs armed with knives, stealing credit cards and biscuits. They aren't JUST after money though, they want the couples son who's apparently not been able to keep his mouth shut about someone cousin...or something along those lines. There were some nice slow motion shots, but other than that, it's a very simple film with the only location being the house, well, the living room. There were a handful of tense moments that had me remotely wondering what was going to happen, however, it's all rather predictable. I didn't REALLY care what was going to happen at the end, although, I did hope the couple would execute some revenge if they were to escape. Overall, it's not the worst film in the world, but it's definitely not the best of it's type; Eden Lake and Funny Games are a lot better..and the teenagers seem too stupid in Cherry Tree Lane to carry out anything too horrific.

Doing a bit of channel hopping tonight and we came across this movie. My other half almost instantly wanted to change channels as the description of a psychological slasher piece involving some revengeful teenagers didn't appeal to her on any level. I protested and said let's at least watch the start and see how it develops. And I'm so glad we did.

It's a quite tense and edgy piece that could easily be a stage show, all very contained. The acting is pretty good, the script is basic but it does the job, the plot is nothing more than you'd expect. Yet somehow the whole thing is greater then the sum of its pieces in my opinion.

Even though I don't have any great affection for the characters, I found myself rooting for them, or laughing with them, or sighing with them. I think this film does moral terpitude very well, I think it largely avoids cliché, even though the subject might feel that way sometimes. I don't know how I missed this three years ago, but I'm glad to have caught up with it now.

Elements of Straw Dogs perhaps, although this feature manages the central dilemma of that horror in a much more intelligent fashion. I think that's what I enjoyed the most really, the way it did horror through implication.