F

An alcoholic teacher has to save his estranged daughter when a group of hooded youths attack the school at night....

I liked the idea behind this film, but sadly as written, it doesn't quite work. The characters are largely unappealing so you don't really care what happens to them. For an 18-rated film, there is a surprising lack of on-screen violence. You don't actually see much on-screen, instead usually only seeing the bodies afterwards.

As a result, then the writer/director Johannes Roberts has to rely on his skill with a camera to create tension and any scares he can, and to be fair he does get the building tension as the film progresses just right. There are a couple of scares, but not many.

The cast do their best to look scared or terrified, but as said, the script makes them mostly unappealing people so you have no feelings for them and don't care if they live or die.

Another fault, for me anyway, was the apparent lack of motivation for the attack. Was it revenge for something? Did they attack out of boredom? Something to indicate why they were doing it might have helped I feel.

But Johannes Roberts does managed to partially redeem the film with a truly unsettling ending. I can't recall a recent film with an ending like this, and it actually works brilliantly.

Sadly though it is his writing that lets him down, which is a shame, as potentially this could have been very good indeed.

A missed opportunity.

The bad guys could have been nutbars, murderous ex students or zombies... They're THAT generic.

Worse, the premise of the bad guys ALWAYS being behind their victims... It's like none of the characters ever heard of "the second Raptor" (Jurassic Park reference for those unfamiliar... Which shouldn't be many by this point!).

The cops who show up, could have been extras from ANY horror movie. Somethings going wrong, what should we do first off, split up. Duh.

Definitely a gore-fest. VERY formulaic. It's too bad, as the actors could have done SO much better, if the director would have actually put some serious effort into storyline instead of the gore factor.

The ending was the only bit that came across as realistic. In a human sense, if not a movie ending sense.

Hey look, a socially relevant and disturbingly accurate horror/thriller! You don't see a lot of those, that's for sure. Well okay, only the basic premise and main themes behind Johannes Roberts' "F" are realistic, while the further events in the film are pure fictional and exaggeratedly sensational… And thank God for that! But as said, the synopsis immediately grabbed my attention. Not a day goes by without hearing depressing reports on the news about chaotic riots or shootouts on school grounds and senseless violence against people who are just doing their jobs, like teachers, bus drivers and train conductors. "F" suitably opens with devoted English literature teacher Mr. Anderson taking a punch in the face from a frustrated student after flunking his exam. The school's board of directors refuses to support Mr. Anderson and even forces him to go on sick leave because the kid's parents threatened with a lawsuit. I don't intend to sound overly embittered and old, but sadly this "fictional" intro gradually turned into a saddening fact! Kids used to answer to their parents regarding bad school grades and unacceptable behavior, but nowadays teachers risk to be held responsible for their disrespectful and uncontrollable attitude. One year later, Mr. Anderson still teaches his class but metamorphosed into a completely different person, struggling with alcoholism, paranoia and a torn apart family situation. One evening, when keeping his daughter in detention, a pack of criminal students (?) hiding their faces underneath hooded caps invade the school's premises and relentlessly begin to terrorize the remaining staff members without apparent motive.

As a social statement, "F" is definitely one of the most remarkable genre movies of the past ten years. The subject matter is relevant and the main characters are identifiable, which automatically puts the film in a league higher than your average and typical slasher movie about a bunch of idiotic teenagers heading out to the remote backwoods and getting butchered by inbred hillbillies, or something. Purely talking in terms of cinematic value and impact, however, "F" unfortunately is too much of a flawed and incoherent accomplishment. Writer/director Roberts does a terrific job generating a tense and involving atmosphere, through detailed character drawings and a terrific use of ominous music, but the movie narrowly collapses as soon as the school invasion truly breaks loose. He wants to intentionally remain vague and distant regarding the hooded hoodlums' identity and motives, presumably in order to keep everything more disturbing, but he overlooks the fact that the viewer expects a minimum of insight. The invasion, clearly influenced by John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" comes across as too random and implausible. The northern London area obviously suffers from troublesome kids, but there weren't any hints at well-organized criminal gangs to my knowledge. Who are these hoodlums? Exactly how many of them? Are they even students at Mr. Anderson's school? They could be a bunch of circus acrobats gone berserk, for all we know, because their speed and flexibility to move across the hallways and climb atop of school infrastructure is deeply impressive. And also, these assailants aren't just insignificant youthful thugs… Judging by the crimes committed here, they're incurably and dangerously deranged psychopaths! If you see what they do to the principle's head or how they mess up secretary Roxanne McKee's cute face, I sincerely doubt we're dealing with rebellious school kids here. Not even the serial killers on death row are this cruel and sadistic. The film actually contains very little on screen violence, but the suggestive cruelty and imagery is more than enough for sensitive people to avoid watching. The ending is a huge letdown and, like many other reviewers already indicated, it looks as if there are fifteen minutes missing and/or Johannes Roberts completely ran out of budget all of a sudden. I think I understand the deeper meaning behind the open ending, but this simply isn't the type of movie for that. It's a worthwhile attempt, but unfortunately not destined to become a cult gem/classic.

Reading some of the reviews about F, it is clear that there are a few misguided and unimaginative people out there. Fair dos to them - they are entitled to their own opinions! For the more open-minded people out there:

This film marries together several different film genres to create quite a unique experience. It relies on the audience being able to envisage in their own mind how the story progresses and ends, giving just enough clues to help them along the way.

If cut and dry endings and 100% gore is what you are after, then this isn't going to be the film for you. While F does have several toe curling scenes, that is not all it's about.

I challenge all avid film buffs and viewers to watch this film and identify all the 'non-horror' influences and techniques that have gone into its making. Appreciation for these qualities will mean appreciation for a very talented film maker - hopefully with plenty more films to come!

This is a great independent effort. They really take an old fashioned simple concept and make it entertaining. The only real character to speak of is an alcoholic Teacher who appears to be coming slowly undone more and more. After being attacked by a student one day everything just seems to be going wrong for him. I'll just leave it at that. As the viewers were just kind of watching a regular day at school that goes horribly wrong when menacing faceless(which is also a nice touch) killers start slowly taking out all in their way. The movie works with a lot of camera angles, but has a couple of decent gore shots. The directors seemed to be making a more cerebral approach which worked with the breathing and spooky sound tracks. Also, the movie didn't wear out its welcome at an hour and 15 minutes. I would say this is a very watchable British horror flick indeed.