Angel

Sadly my career as courier to cheeky governments and well dressed spy, is over. I was thrust into a seat (Like I've been on many occasions In my career - perks of the job etc) while the enemy employ various means to try extract secrets I'm holding.

Well the chair, the heating turned off, a bit of water-boarding began then they tightened the straps ensuring I wasn't able to move and made me watch this film! I gave them everything, including my ultra secret fantasy for Sarah Palin dressed in a catsuit while reading Tolstoy to me.

This isn't a film - It's a torture technique. I hope my eyes will one day forgive me.

I enjoyed this movie. Jenn Murray is quite believable as a victim of child abuse and her performance was chilling at times in the way she played Angel fighting her inner demons. Peter Hugo-Daly is the essence of evil as the depraved clown and sent shivers down my spine. The only downside to me is the amount of swear words in the dialog. I suppose they were put in to make it realistic but I believe that swear words are unnecessary in a movie as I know several people that won't watch a movie that contains swear words no matter how good the movie is.

The Plot kept me guessing until the very end.

The Film is inspired by the book Still Waters by NigelMcClery and not Core of Evil as stated on the Front Page here. The Book is also a very good read and sufficiently different so as to not spoil the Film. I can Recommend Both.

I wasn't going to mention this Brit-horror oddity, but, on reflection it's arguably hinkey enough for more tweaked B-Horror obsessed misfits to give it a shout. Ray Burdis's 'Angel', sadly, had the potential to be a decent psychological horror film, all the lurid ingredients were certainly present, but the so-so execution, prosaic dialogue, and wildly inconsistent performances did much to clip this Angel's wings. On the plus side, the gamine, Jenn Murray's portrayal of cutesy kooky psycho killer Angel was suitably incandescent. Angel's increasingly demented interludes proved memorable, and the macabre flashbacks to her distressing childhood trauma were genuinely unsettling. Once I realised that 'Angel' was veering inexorably into Schlock Central I started to dig on it most righteously. This skeevey tale of bloody-minded vengeance is a creepy curate's egg, but one hopes that another equally twisted reprobate might share a modicum of my, perhaps, entirely misguided enthusiasm for, Ray Burdis's earnest misfire!

I did not find this movie appealing on any level. Even with horrors or thrillers that are disturbing you still would normally find something you liked about them.

Angel is a disturbed young lady who was horrifically abused as a child by her grandmother and grandmothers friends. The abusers wore masks and called the scene of the abuse a 'party'.

The characters in this movie are very one-dimensional, unlikable and lack depth or development. The story content is of course very dark but the path the movie takes just continues along on that darkness and doesn't let up.

The police and government become involved due to a cover-up whereby Angel shouldn't actually be free.

For me personally I did not enjoy the film, I maybe didn't understand what the makers were trying to achieve. To me it's just a film of misery and darkness.

This British thriller tells the story of Angel, a girl in the centre of a paedophilia conspiracy that goes deep into the heart of the UK government. Her mind cracked after years of abuse she is on a killing spree and several branches of law enforcement are after her for varying reasons.

One thing I'll say about Angel is it's smart, its well written and a very clever piece of cinema. Everything that happens is entirely believable and many parts could be considered almost a dark satire.

The trouble is its not very entertaining. We witness Angel on one side and the powers that be on the other leading to the inevitable showdown but when the credits rolled I found myself unimpressed with the film.

Well written, well created and exceeds most British pieces but perhaps it just needed a bit more time to develop. Something about Angel simply missed the mark.

The Good:

Very clever little film

The Bad:

John Hannahs presence is hardly felt

What the hell is with that cover?