The Cottage (2008)

Director:

Paul Andrew Williams

Writer:

Paul Andrew Williams (writer)

Release Date:

14 March 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

In a remote part of the countryside, a bungled kidnapping turns into a living nightmare for four central...

Plot Keywords:

Cottage | Surprise After End Credits | Gagged And Bound | Basement | Kidnapping

Cast

Doug Bradley	...	Old Man
Jonathan Chan-Pensley	...	Chun Yo Fu
Jennifer Ellison	...	Tracey
Eden Groome	...	Farmer's Daughter 2
Georgia Groome	...	Farmer's Daughter 1
Johnny Harris	...	Smoking Joe
Dave Legeno	...	The Farmer
Katy Murphy	...	Farmer's Wife
Steven O'Donnell	...	Andrew (as Steve O'Donnell)
Simon Schatzberger	...	Steven
Andy Serkis	...	David
Reece Shearsmith	...	Peter
Eden Watson	...	Daughter 2
Logan Wong	...	Muk Li San

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:16 | UK:18 | Australia:R (2008) | Ireland:16 | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Isle of Man

Company:

Pathé

Trivia:

According to director Williams, Tracey was originally written as a 40-year-old character but, to get the finance, he was told to cast someone young.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the scene where Peter and Tracey arrive at the farmer's house, you can clearly see a stagehand standing in a doorway to the shed/garage for several shots.

It's a comedy with bite, right to the end.

Two brothers, David & Peter, kidnap Tracey, the daughter of local tough guy gangster Arnie, they hold her to ransom for the sum of £100,000. What they hadn't bargained into the equation is that Tracey is one tough feisty lady, and that a turn of events will lead them to something far more scary than big bad gangster Arnie.

This is the second feature from director Paul Andrew Williams, and bearing in mind that his debut effort was the highly lauded gritty drama London To Brighton, it's no surprise to find that some folk are a little bemused as to the genre splicing nature of The Cottage. The Cottage is far more in keeping with Christopher Smith's 2006 horror comedy, Severance, and certainly it wouldn't be out of place as a double bill with that criminally undervalued picture.

Very much a film of two halves, this picture is likely to prove a very divisive piece, and it will only finding an audience based on word of mouth alone, you will be hard pressed to find any sort of press marketing that will prepare you for the type of genre fusion film you are getting. Already, based on the comments written on this site thus far, you can see that some people were confused {or annoyed} by the tonal shift for the second half of the film. The first half sees poles apart brothers , David & Peter swapping comedy dialogue as they whisk thru a number of exchanges and circumstances with the marvellously volatile Tracey, whilst the second part of the picture hits you over the head with a quick switch to horror formula that has catering fulfilment for the gore junkies amongst us. And this is where the problem lays with many, why didn't the film stay as a kidnap farce?, why didn't it set its stall out to be a horror film from the off?, there is no denying that the films high points come with the horror moments, but the film is first and foremost a comedy from the first reel to the cheeky end of credits sequence, and as deliciously sick as the gore shift is, The Cottage never once takes its tongue out of its cheek. It's obvious that Paul Andrew Williams is having fun here and he hopes his audience will as well, view it as an all encompassing comedy/horror/thriller in that order and you wont go far wrong.

Andy Serkis plays David, the tough brother of the two, and Serkis does a wonderful line in both visual and vocal comedy. This benefits Reece Shearsmith as Peter, a character so far under the thumb he can barely be seen, Shearsmith feeds of Serkis to seal the comedy deal of this odd brotherly couple. British tabloid fave Jennifer Ellison plays Tracey, literally swearing for England to have the audience divided as to if they want her to survive or not!, but it's a gutsy show from her and one hopes she ventures into this territory a bit more often. There is nothing new or fresh here, and this wont win any awards even in its homeland of England, but it is FUN, and it shows a director clearly intent on making films from different genres, 7/10.