On Edge

This is Frazer Lee's first feature but you wouldn't know it by viewing it. Filmed in stunning 35mm Panavision widescreen the images on screen are beautifully framed and the lighting while being true to the environment add to the uneasy feeling the film is intended to give its viewers. The story follows Peter Thurlow, played by Charley Doorman as he visits his local dentist in a cure for his toothache. After showing up without an appointment and discovering his regular dentist is away on holiday he accepts the offer of treatment from the new dentist, Doctor Mathews, played by horror icon Doug Bradley. Bad Move! Our patient is shown to an upstairs room and settles in the chair for the work to begin and straight away you get the feeling that Doctor Mathews enjoys his work just a little too much.

The camera angle places the viewer right in the dentistry chair with the good doctor poised above you, there's no escaping the horror here folks so sit back and open wide please. As the film progresses you learn Doctor Mathews isn't your run of the mill orthodontist and favors his own method of treatment but I won't say any more, don't want to give away too much now do I!.

Doug Bradley's performance is excellent and his constantly changing emotions and expressions make the character all that bit more mysterious. Is he there to ease his patient's pain or is he there for his own pleasures? The climax is a true horror moment, mainly thanks to the brilliant special effects work of Bob Keen (Hellraiser, Event Horizon, Dog Soldiers) and it's an image that stays with you long after the credits have packed up and caught the last taxi home.

As someone who's never been a fan of dentists this short film got to me, it made me flinch as the anesthetic needle went in, it made me cringe as the doctor slowly moved towards the camera with the drill and the ending, well lets just say my cold pizza and coffee from earlier nearly made a return visit. I'll admit I'm a sucker for these kind of scares, the terror on screen is all that bit more real when it's a situation or experience I can relate to. On Edge gave me the exact same feeling as the last time I watched Arachnophobia. I hate spiders but I love to watch that film just to feel uneasy and scared, and after all aren't spiders and dentists both incarnations of the devil? Please don't let the short fifteen minute runtime put you off this one, the story is so tight and the production values are so high that it really doesn't need to be any longer. Throw in the brilliant performance from Doug and you have the whole shooting match folks, Real life every day horror at its finest.

"Oh, one last thing. Don't forget to floss"