Irish Film Institute -LIE STILL

LIE STILL

Director: Sean Hogan

U.K.| 2005. COLOUR. DIGITAL VIDEO. 80 MIN.


A kind of M R Jamesian take on Repulsion, this promising first feature from British writer-director Sean Hogan is an extended variant of the creepy old-dark-house chiller. As such it’s a rather refreshing throwback to earlier traditions of horror. John (Stuart Laing) is a twentysomething drifter struggling to cope with the end of his latest relationship; seeking peace and quiet, he apparently finds both when he moves into a bed-sit flat in a creaking suburban mansion owned by the chummily ingratiating Mr Stone (Robert Blythe). This proves to be only the start of John’s problems, however, as a series of horrific nightmares sends him on a downward spiral into psychosis. The story’s general outline is predictable, but Hogan knows how to create and build a mood. Crucially, he deploys the tried-and-tested method of implying rather than actually showing the horrors, leaving the work to our own imaginations.

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