The Living and the Dead (2006)

Director:

Simon Rumley

Writer:

Simon Rumley (writer)

Release Date:

24 October 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Terror by good intentions.

Plot:

A descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh...

Plot Keywords:

Depression | Oedipus Complex | Female Frontal Nudity | Maze | Guilt

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Roger Lloyd-Pack	...	Donald Brocklebank
Leo Bill	...	James Brocklebank
Kate Fahy	...	Nancy Brocklebank
Sarah Ball	...	Nurse Mary
Neil Conrich	...	Policeman

Directed by
Simon Rumley

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Simon Rumley		writer

Produced by
Elliot Grove	....	executive producer
Paris Leonti	....	line producer (as Barry Leonti)
Nick O'Hagan	....	producer
Simon Rumley	....	producer
Carl Schönfeld	....	co-producer
Uday Tiwari	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Richard Chester

Cinematography by
Milton Kam

Film Editing by
Benjamin Putland

Casting by
Joyce Nettles

Production Design by
Will Field

Art Direction by
Alasdair McKay

Costume Design by
Alice Wolfbauer

Makeup Department
Jackie Fowler	....	makeup designer

Production Management
Lucy Teire	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Simon Downes	....	second assistant director
Mick Ward	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Elliott Stallion	....	art department assistant

Sound Department
Mike Kneafsey	....	boom operator
Keith Tunney	....	production sound mixer
Hilary Wyatt	....	supervising dialogue editor

Special Effects by
Robin Pritchard	....	prosthetic technician

Camera and Electrical Department
Alex Brown	....	sparks
Cherry Carmen	....	assistant camera
Ewan Cassidy	....	gaffer
Thomas English	....	steadicam operator
Alex Hudson	....	grip
Mihalis Margaritis	....	focus puller
Annika Summerson	....	sparks (as Annika Holm)
Brian Udoff	....	assistant camera
Susanne Willett	....	sparks

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Vida Wolfbauer	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Andrew Dearnley	....	digital intermediate technician
Connan McStay	....	on-line editor

Other crew
Helene Oosthuizen	....	script supervisor
Lucie Phillips Browne	....	production runner
Aidan Williams	....	production assistant
Aidan Williams	....	production coordinator

Thanks
Lulu O'Hagan	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Giant Films
• Giant Films

Distributors

• Accent Film Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Blue Sky Media (2007) (Czech Republic) (all media)
• Imagination Worldwide (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• M.I.B. (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• TLA Releasing (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• TLA Releasing (2007) (USA) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Molinare Studio  post-production facilities

Also Known As:

The Living in the Home of the Dead (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

Germany:83 min (European Film Market) | Argentina:83 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | UK:18 | Australia:MA (2008) | Argentina:13 | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company:

Giant Films

Trivia:

The Longleigh House location was once a World War I hospital, the Hawtreys School for young men, and then was run as a drug rehabilitation clinic. Local reports are that at least three ghosts, an old woman, a soldier, and a child who fell 75 feet while sliding down the banisters, still inhabit the Tottenham House near Savernake, England.

Quotes:

James: When you leave, I'm the one to look after our house, I'm the one to look after Mummy.

Pointless

'The Living and the Dead' portrays the lives of a British noble, his wife and their adult son set in a spectacular country estate. The good days are long past. The estate is in disrepair and at risk of forfeiture, the wife bedridden most of the film and the son clinically psychotic. That sums up the bulk of what can be said with relative certainty about the plot.

The rest is a tumbling mash of conflicting alternate realities, displaced time-lines, hallucinatory visions and fast motion. Director/writer/producer Simon Rumley loves the fast motion. Leo Bill as the son spends much of the film at ten-fold speed, racing through vast expanses of interior, arms and face animated in a failed attempt to impart the viewer his perspective. It doesn't work, quickly growing tiresome and obvious. Rumley's so committed to the technique that clouds, the advancing sun, branches, vehicles, doctors and nurses eventually join the fray. Repeatedly. It's difficult to comprehend why since it has no bearing on the quiet desperation Rumley's grasping at, instead evoking the feel of an Eighties music video or a VW commercial.

It's symptomatic of the film's jettisoning coherency for atmosphere. The first half contradicts the back with no hint of resolution offered. The son proves more criminally insane than clinically yet no reason offered why he wasn't institutionalized. Early in the film when still portrayed as a happy idiot the father is constantly abusive and stern. Fatherly warmth doesn't appear until unconscionable acts are committed. The son roams free past the point any modern Western nation would have seen him incarcerated. We never know why. Likewise the rest of the plot is so artificial and bent to the requirements of intense moments all believability is lost and with it any concern for the characters. The one bright spot is Kate Fahy's terrific portrayal of the wife. She creates the few and fleeting scenes in which the film works as intended. Not content with these minor successes Rumley brushes them aside to make room for more mind-bending plot twists, snatching total failure from the jaws of mediocre success. A movie for the patient only.