Bait

The first 5 minutes starts off okay, a little slow but good production value, decent dialog. It all goes down hill from there. 35 minutes into it and nothing's happening.

Eventually, the violence starts, but it's so unrealistic and over the top, it's not believable, even within the context of the story.

The violence is really fake too, with everyone getting beat to bloody hell, then walking around sporting a couple band-aids, like they are super-human. Sometimes, even the physics stand out as obviously wrong.

This movie is frankly stupid. As it drags on, even the dialog and filming goes downhill, as if the crew realized just what a bad a movie they were making and gave up on it.

Normally, I try to finish bad movies so I can leave a complete review, but with this one after an hour I had to fast-forward through most of it.

The only reason I gave it two stars in the actors seemed to be trying with what little they were given.

Now considering the budget of this movie was a tiny 180k this puts some of the movies that Hollywood is producing to shame. The script is sharp and the characters are well formed, a little too well formed maybe. The lead psychopath does an excellent job in luring the audience in with his charm, while disguising an underlying darkness that is truly reprobate. His counterparts play their parts equally well with a mixture of desperation and fear. Bottom line the story is very simple but there is enough thrills to keep your attention all the way. Would definitely recommend this. I'm sure everyone in the cast will glean bigger roles thanks to this.

I just finished watching Adult Babies, another film by this director, and I mentioned this film in that review. The films have a lot in common, believe it or not -- sub par acting, script, and direction. The 2 I gave this film is generous, but it wasn't quite as abysmal as Adult Babies, so I didn't have much of a choice.

What happened to high quality British creations like Dead Man's Shoes?

I thought this was a solid 7 for about 3/4 of the movie even though it was a bit preposterous at times, but the ending (well, not the very end) sort of ruined the entire film for me. It was beyond preposterous and rife with stupidity. I'm not going to give it away, but let's just say the weapon the women used to try to take out their adversary was a rather poor choice, and their plan didn't seem particularly well thought out. Nonetheless, that scene did contain some entertaining gore. The acting was fine and there was enough suspense to keep me wondering how this would ultimately play out. Because of the ending, I can't necessarily recommend the film, but it wouldn't be the worst one you've ever seen either.

I saw this film at it's premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival 2014 and was delighted to find a gripping story with very interesting characters. Both female leads were fantastic in their roles and I was gripped from start to finish. It is a definite step up for Director Dominic Brunt after his directorial debut with Before Dawn (2012) and both the character building and story have improved dramatically. The story is thrilling and the actions of the film's Loan Shark villain are brutal and visceral, often shockingly so. This only adds to the gritty, real world quality the film presents to us. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a good thriller! 10/10