As summer turns to autumn and the London Film Festival rolls around again, one thing remains in terminal decline – the British gangster film.
October sees the release of Dead Man Running, which is not, sadly, an action-packed sequel to Sean Penn’s death row movie. Rather, it is yet another affable, but rubbish crime caper in which Danny Dyer marches about calling people muppets. Is there any hope for the genre that was once British film’s calling card?
When Raindance opens at the end of this month, film fans who’ve kept the faith should be sure to catch Down Terrace, the story of a small crime family marking their decline with one final, violent blow out. Nominated for Raindance’s Best British Film award and already confirmed for Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, Down Terrace reboots the genre with a brilliantly bizarre blend of kitchen sink realism, broad swathes of black comedy and a body count befitting a slasher flick.
The team behind this genre-melding genius is director Ben Wheatley and his long-time collaborator and star of the film, Robin Hill. Shot mostly in Hill’s parent’s Brighton home, Down Terrace brings together a cast of TV comedy stalwarts (Julia Deakin from Spaced plays matriarch Maggie; and you’ll remember Tony Way’s face from Black Books, Extras and The Fast Show) with members of Hill’s family. In fact Hill’s dad steals several scenes as the moody and menacing family head, Bill.
Evidently talent, hard work and originality aren’t the only ingredients in Down Terrace’s success; the film has two heroically forbearing supporters in the shape of Hill’s parents. Indignities suffered in the name of art include a rocket fired at Mr Hill’s head, Mrs Hill being hit around the head with a brick (foam, we hope) and worse: “Your dad had to look at you lying on the floor pretending to be dead with your cock out, didn’t he?”
Fortunately, their faith is already proving well-founded. Wheatley and Hill have created massively successful virals as well as sketches for Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet and the new series of Shooting Stars.
Along the way, Wheatley has developed expertise in two contradictory-sounding areas; the inventive special effects seen on his BBC3 sketch show The Wrong Door and the restrained naturalistic photography style of the Johnny Vegas sit-com Ideal, which he directed for one series. Both are evident in Down Terrace.
“We wanted to avoid the old British gangster film clichés. That was a big driving force,” says Robin who also co-wrote the script. “It’s just a film about work really,” adds Wheatley, “Work which happens to be criminal.”
