Dir. Ross Boyask, UK, 2008, 90 mins
Cast: Brendan Carr, John Rackham, Terry Stone, Doug Bradley, Pooja Shah, Lee Latchford-Evans
Review by Richard Badley
In 2004 producer/director team Phil Hobden and Ross Boyask brought us Left for Dead, a down and dirty revenge movie and a labour of love for the pair, who were intent on matching the explosive thrills of their US counterparts. Getting an action film off the ground in the UK hasn’t gotten any easier but once again they’ve proved it can be done. Ten Dead Men is further testament to their ability to wring every last nose-shattering head butt from a budget that would barely cover Sly’s gym membership. With tough, unrelenting action and inventive structure the film is a marked improvement on Left for Dead, it reworks its scumbag characters, but is far more brutal in their demise. And don’t worry, plenty more than ten die...
The plot follows Ryan (Carr), an instinctive killer whose attempts to leave the underworld wind up with his girlfriend Amy (Shah) murdered and him shot and dumped in the sea. From the moment he wakes up on the beach, Ryan begins a journey of savage revenge that would make Tarantino wince as one by one he despatches those who robbed him of everything. It might be a rather typical set-up, but the real fun is in the layers of flashbacks that give Ryan a compelling back story.
Starting at the end, screenwriter Chris Regan explores what has driven Ryan to the point of no return; the normal life he had with Amy, his history as an unfeeling killing machine, and the bad debt that betrayed him to the gang he tried to escape. Frequently comparing the two sides of Ryan’s personality gives the film a certain sadness over what might have been, but also adds a degree of inevitability about the beast that lies within his psyche that craves violence. The device is also put to great use during the climactic shoot-out by throwing off viewer expectation and delivering a satisfying, blunt ending.
The character dealing out the fatalities is the knockout Carr, all Rottweiler tenacity and primal rage. He stalks through the movie, barely able to stand from his physical and mental wounds, yet he carries on fuelled by pills and pain, a wordless Max Payne in fact. With Ryan mostly mute, narration duties are handled by Hellraiser's Pinhead, Doug Bradley, a seemingly odd approach as he’s never connected to the story itself, but giving things an offbeat, Twilight Zone vibe. It's then the film starts to work, the Narrator as a creator, and Ryan as his Frankenstein’s monster often shambling from kill to kill before exploding with ferocious bloodlust. Ryan’s already dead, he’s nothing to live for, and only animated for the Narrator's, and our, entertainment. You can almost imagine Bradley in a plush armchair chuckling to himself as he watches over Ryan’s thankless mission.
Horror also bleeds into some of the darker scenes involving mutilation and torture, tapping into the visceral feel of Hostel with Ryan keeping various 'souvenirs' along the way. The film's most sadistic villain is the innocent sounding Project Manager who has artistic aspirations in his patient extraction of information. However, Ten Dead Men is foremost an action film and Boyask lets rip with some ambitious stunt work and bone-breaking moves, showing off skills from real fighters like martial artist Silvio Simac and Cage Rage hero Tom Gerald who proves to be Ryan’s toughest match. Their brawl in a derelict house is the most evocative, all low-camera angles and close quarters, but Ryan isn’t averse to using quicker methods like blowing things up or setting people on fire.
Even without Hollywood money, Boyask approaches each set-piece with vision and executes it in carnage loaded glory. Filmed across the South of England, from Wembley down to Brighton, with some carefully nuanced characters – including a pair of henchmen who argue over car mileage and Hobden's own boy racer thug – there is plenty to see in the film’s tight, uncompromising 90 minutes.
Ultra-violent, ultra-mean, Ten Dead Men unashamedly revels in its genre’s hard-boiled roots, wallowing in the destruction of revenge and the wreckage it leaves behind. With Ryan’s detached killer on the road to oblivion we have the UK’s own Mad Max, darkened by The Crow thanks to shades of body-horror and comic book characters. The film easily clubs aside any British alternative and will no doubt leave the stuffy, politically correct media whimpering in the corner of their rose-tinted, Notting Hill world. This is revenge actually, a dish served cold and bloody, littered with plenty of limbs and shrapnel.
Ten Dead Men will be screened at Seni 2008, the international combat sports show, on Saturday April 26 and will be on general release later this year. For more information please check out www.tendeadmen.co.uk
|
