Heartless

Ridley's first film in way too many years is a dark urban fairytale about a young photographer who encounters murderous demons on the streets of London. Firstly, I have to admit to being a huge fan of Ridley's work and The Reflecting Skin is in my personal Top 10 movies of all time, so I have to say I loved this genre-playing horror film.

Heartless is, to my mind, Ridley's most conventional film to date as it is the first truly genre-based film he has made, but, underneath the conventions of the horror film we find his usual philosophical musings on death, beauty, existentialism, good and evil, chaos and the individual's struggle to make sense of the world.

Heartless is a step towards the mainstream for Ridley and that may well be its commercial undoing; too "mainstream" genre for the art-house crowd, too cerebral for the thrill loving multiplex gore-hound.

Ultimately, this is a serious film, a dark and often beautiful film that haunts the mind after viewing and already demands a second viewing of me to unravel some of its dark mysteries. Intelligent, moving, sometimes shocking and occasionally funny this is an engrossing and enjoyable piece of work that gives food for thought as well as an entertaining ghost train of a ride. Approach this one with an open mind and you will be rewarded with a strong contemporary horror film with some real depth and intelligence.

This is a "psychological" thriller as much or more than a horror film. First, Jim Sturgess is excellent and has a brilliant career ahead of him. Why we haven't seen more of Joseph Mawie, the "devil" character, over the years is beyond me. Mawie is extremely creepy and steals his scenes. Timothy Spall and Ed Marson are underrated, though you've seen them a thousand times.

The depiction of dark London is well done. And the supernatural elements are well introduced, conservatively used and blended well with the psychological travails of our main character. But there is so much going on that at times I caught myself trying to piece bits together to guess at what I was supposed to be guessing at. The "neighbor" functions as a good foil but we're led to believe he has/will have something to do with the plot, which he really doesn't. The "nephew" subplot, though of some importance to a a late plot explanation, becomes annoying early on and the actor is less than convincing.

Fun nonetheless. Difficult to make a passable horror film these days.

Now,... I never feel motivated to write reviews; This is my first. Although in the past I've seen many great motion pictures and thought about it, I just didn't want to spend the time putting my feasibly mundane typed words into a critique.

To the people that rated this a 1 star and said don't waste your time, I'm happy I decided to anyway. To anybody reading this, don't pay attention to those people. Actually, I feel sorry for those reviewers, because they completely missed the point of this piece of art. It is not your typical horror. To call it a horror would be like calling moonlight sonata just a piano song; or the person closest to you just a human. This film is beyond deep. Philip Ridleys portrayal of facing your own demons, your fears, and exposing some rays of happiness through darkness, is one of the most strange yet gorgeous things I've seen ever in a movie.

If you watch this film and are not moved in some way, I honestly wouldn't know what to say. Because this visual masterpiece is in my eyes one of the greatest I've ever seen. I don't care what the critics say, or some random individual who has the mind to dismiss it as just a complex meaningless thriller. To me, this was a heart-moving, near perfection, possibly life-changing viewing; possibly due to the fact that I instantly related to scenes in the movie. It was like looking at my soul in the clearest of mirrors. The ending was..well there's no word for it.

I really hope more people have watched this one and understand what I feel right now. I feel..reborn.

After hearing from the Director , Philip Ridley , about this movie on radio five i decided to to give it a go and i'm really pleased i did. You cant really put this film just into the Horror genre because it is much more than that. The movie looks stunning and the acting is of the highest quality (although i would have liked to have seen more of Eddie Marsen). To say it is thought provoking is an understatement and a great deal of praise should go to the Director for taking on such a heavy subject. My only criticism is i felt it began to lose it's way a little bit about 90 minutes in , but thankfully it's conclusion pulled it around wrapped up things very nicely.

Recommended.

Wonderfully, powerfully, moving and thought-provoking. It is a rare thing for a horror film to genuinely touch me, but Heartless did just that. It was such an odd mixture of creature-feature horror, a stunningly emotive story and fantastic characterisation that it really defies classification.

One thing I do know, however, is that watching Heartless gave me an experience like no other 'horror' film I've seen. The scare moments were in there, and I jumped in all the right places, but the deeper storyline, so brilliantly given life by Jim Sturgess and Nikita Mistry, was what made this film stand out as one of the best I have seen all year. As a general rule I'm not fond of creature/demon based films, because human beings are a lot scarier to me than something that doesn't exist, but far from being just a quest to scare you, this felt like a film that also compelled you to think, and that is where it excelled.

The characters were refreshingly three-dimensional, and I really grew to care for them, which made the story all the more engaging – I wanted things to be alright for Jamie, I was rooting for him, and the deeper I got into the story, the scarier it became. That is how horror should work, it should suck you in to a point where you feel what the protagonists are feeling; that is how to produce a real scare. Not just in a jump out of your seat moment, but in the moments after the film has ended and beyond, where you think and contemplate what you may have done in the situation.

The direction was excellent and the actual cinematography and use of photographs within the film was gorgeous. The standout element though was by far the superb acting throughout the entire piece. The leads in particular were impressive, but all of the supporting cast were stellar too.

Heartless was a winner for me, because it is a film that I know will stay with me for a long time, and could well become one of my go-to films when someone asks me for a gem.