Sightseers

Ben Wheatley provides one of the year's darkest and funniest comedies in this tale of true love, caravans and dead bodies.

Ever since her terrier Poppy died in a bizarre knitting accident, Tina (Darkplace's Alice Lowe) has lived a sheltered life with her mother. New boyfriend Chris (Steve Oram) decides to show her his world and takes her on a self-proclaimed "erotic odyssey" in his caravan to such wonders as the Crich Tramway Museum, Ribblehead Viaduct and, of course, Keswick Pencil Museum. But with litterbug, National Trust snobs and feral youths running rampant, Tina and Chris inadvertently leave a trail of dead bodies in their wake, as their holiday continues to spiral out of control.

Steve Oram heads up the fantastic cast as the muted, yet brutal, Chris, complementing Alice Lowe's awkward, yet creepy, Tina perfectly. However, the real star is the special effects, which provide some of the most realistic and memorable on screen deaths of the year. The unsettling, albeit hilarious, performances of the two leads is mirrored in the soundtrack, a mix of cheery '80s pop songs and a haunting minimalist score.

Shot in the beautiful Lake District, director Ben Wheatley uses lingering shots and slow-mo in an innovative way, making his comedy edgy whilst poignant. No doubt, this is a very British black comedy. Wheatley shows directorial flair, but reigns it in from his previous work Kill List, leading to a much tighter film, with a concentration on the biting wit of the script.

Sightseers, overall, plays out like a cross between Bonnie & Clyde and In Bruges, leading to a perfect pitch-black comedy that's not for the faint hearted.

Sightseers is emphatically not for your Aunt Nelly. Actually, it isn't suitable for my dad, most of the run-of-the-mill Saturday night cinema-goers, Daily Mail readers or the die-hard caravan owners who embark on such road trips. To be honest, Sightseers isn't right for many people at all; it's what you might call a niche film. It's going to satisfy a minority audience, but those few who do relish the thought of another dark, very dark, British comedy are going to absolutely delight in it.

Falling somewhere between Dexter and The League of Gentlemen (and if you don't know it, try Big Woman out for size – a Desert Island Disc if I'm ever invited on), Sightseers is a road movie about an odd couple with all manner of demons swirling around their minds. Tina (Alice Lowe) still lives with her mum, has been traumatized by the death of her dog, Poppy, and knits. Having seen nothing of the world, an invitation from her new boyfriend, Chris (Steve Oram), to join him on a caravan holiday around Yorkshire with an itinerary that includes a tram village and a pencil museum, is tantamount to a golden ticket to a new life. However, her overbearing, overly dependent witch of a mother doesn't want her to go and Chris has an angry streak with murderous consequences.

Sightseers is beautifully downbeat and both subtler and far darker than Dexter could ever manage. It never makes a big deal of being funny but casually drops in five-star moments throughout that don't always cause belly laughs but do prompt a regular supply of chuckles and wide-eyed smiles. The action, or rather certain activities by the odd couple, however, causes explosive guffaws and shrieks of delight, the bloodier the better judging from the small audience I shared the experience with. There's no judgment from me on that score, I laughed as loud as the best of them.

The first murder we enjoy is swift, but the effect lasts long and the understated humour of the act echoes some time later as Chris nonchalantly washes the remaining of the blood off his caravan wheel. His mild annoyance followed by a passing satisfaction at a job well done are precursors to the simmering rage that follows.

Sightseers doesn't skimp on the horror although director Ben Wheatley keeps the gore and actual violence to acceptable (for those with a strong stomach) levels. He has crafted some genuinely disturbing scenes that take their time building the anticipation until the inevitable and occasionally truly brutal conclusion arrives. There is one quick shot of a, um, demolished head that will have you reaching for a pause button to admire the make-up if nothing else.

But the joy of Sightseers is not in the moments of horror but in the consistency of the subtle humour from Osram's and Lowe's stinging screenplay as much as their chillingly dour performances. Their performances are never fanciful but frighteningly convincing and turn the stomach ever so slightly when one recalls brief interactions with similar characters in real life.

Sightseers invades the brain, it expulses laughter from the belly and at times it wriggles under the skin like white noise and scratches at the nerves. It isn't always easy to watch and the occasional quip is over-egged as if neither cast nor director were convinced it would work completely. It's a minor criticism and a great pity because whenever the dialogue and performances are restrained to levels of naturalism, and that occurs for a good 95% of the film, Sightseers flies. One of the funniest, non-violent moments occurs as Tina struggles to write a note with a six-foot pencil. It's a moment of genius that is allowed to play out in its own time and manner without a wink at the audience to tell us it is a good moment to laugh.

Wheatley's previous offering, 2011's Kill List, left me cold. It disturbed and annoyed in equal measures and Sightseers is a vast improvement. More than that, it's a standout film for the year and, though not quite on the humour plane of The Guard, it's the funniest film I've seen this year so far and has marked out Wheatley's follow up, A Field in England, as a film to look forward to in 2013.

After yesterday's battle with First Great Western trains and the threat of dark happenings in the company of caravanners, I think I'm going to stick to my car in future.

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SIGHTSEERS is very much a team effort: the two stars (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram) also co-wrote the script. With a distinct nod to earlier films such as Terrence Malick's BADLANDS (1973), it focuses on two lovers, Tina and Chris, who embark on a caravanning holiday that takes a decidedly bloody turn, as they dispose of several innocent victims. Ben Wheatley's cinematic style is certainly startling, with its deliberate use of out-of-sync sound, fantasy sequences, memorable short of gore and a soundtrack that includes work by Soft Cell and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The script is deadpan yet extremely funny: both protagonists get some valuable one-liners. What is perhaps more interesting, however, is Wheatley's focus on his characters' lives; hitherto they have spent their entire existences in total anonymity: Tina has lived with her mother Carol (Eileen Davies), and lavished all her love on a favorite terrier, who was unfortunately impaled to death on some knitting-needles. The road-trip gives Tina the chance to liberate herself, just like Chris, who dreams of becoming a full-time writer after having been made redundant. The idea of "writing" is significant; it suggest the desire to leave a legacy, to inscribe oneself in the present so as to be remembered. When Chris' writing dreams come to naught, he looks for alternative ways to establish himself; hence his desire to kill so as not to be pushed around by anyone (i.e. treated as a nobody). Tina follows suit; but what Wheatley suggests is that the two of them find it very difficult to work as a team - Chris believes that Tina has plagiarized his idea, and resents her for what she has done. Two serial killers don't attract as much media attention as one. For her part, Tina learns how to acquire self-determination, even though there are moments when she doubts herself. The film's ending takes us by surprise, reminding us that the protagonists were not as much in love as we thought they were. With its Grand Guignol action taking place against a breathtaking backdrop of the rolling hills of Yorkshire and the Lake District, SIGHTSEERS is strong meat, but definitely worth staying with.

Last year's "Kill List" was one of the creepiest, most disturbing films I had seen in a long time. It's a film that stayed with me long after the screening, and one I encouraged friends and associates to check out. Some still haven't forgiven me.

Imagine the combination of dread/anticipation I felt about the chance to see director Ben Wheatley's latest slice of darkness entitled "Sightseers". Described by some as a "dark comedy", I would say that the only thing possibly darker than Wheatley's sense of humor would be the center of a black hole.

"Sightseers" tells the story of a frumpy British couple off on 'holiday' (as they say,) the problems that come up on such trips, and the unique way they choose to solve them. Saying any more would give too much away. Suffice it to say, may you NEVER come across a couple like this on your vacation.

Is it funny? Yes, it is. But you may hate yourself for laughing. Is it violent? For sure. Exceptionally. But in the context of the story, it has to be. Is it disturbing? Oh, yes it is, but once again Wheatley has made a film that once you've started it, you'll find it difficult to turn away. And, like "Kill List", the ending packs a wallop from which it may take you a while to recover.

Films like "Sightseers" are tough to categorize, and even tougher to recommend. This is not the feel-good hit of the summer. It is a look into the blackest parts of human nature, and how that blackness is often camouflaged by the banality of everyday existence. I wouldn't call Wheatley's films "entertaining", but damned if they don't get an emotional response out of me. So seek it out… but you have been warned.

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Sightseers is a black comedy that favours a few really good and highly quotable jokes over a constant stream of them. It's a suitably bleak depiction of a caravan holiday that goes wrong with a story of tainted love at its centre revolving around two people who truly bring out the worst in each other.

Alice Lowe and Steve Oram are a wonderful pairing as they constantly switch from being madly in love to literally at each other's throats. It's really impressive how quickly they can switch between the two and Alice Lowe in particular, is amazing at using a childlike innocence to hide the fact that she's got a real darkness inside.

Ben Wheatley's direction makes everything look bleak whilst still finding time for some more surreal dream sequences that fit in naturally. All the kills are executed in an unflinching fashion as they happen quickly and without warning, plus the soundtrack is surprisingly good with the songs employed in the most twisted ways.