Dead Bodies

Late night on BBC1, was on my way to bed but curiosity piqued at a contemporary-set Irish film so I stayed to watch for a few minutes and then stayed to the end. I have to admit that the main attraction was the only English actress, Kelly Reilly, who is stunning to look at.

This is billed as a black comedy, which is one of the hardest things to pull off. It should be the perfect blend of horror and horrible laughs so that in the end you don't know why you're laughing - for me Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985) is the best example. Dead Bodies is more black than comedy but the plot rattles along and spirals down towards further blackness. I didn't spot the final twists in the tale as some other posters here did so I was suitably surprised.

As a snapshot of the Irish film industry in 2003, it all seems rather worthy; it doesn't look like they spent too much on the making of it so it had a chance to make its money back. The script could've been a whole lot sharper but the acting was on the whole pretty good. I'm glad I watched it, flaws and all, tho I don't think I learnt much about Ireland today, especially their policing methods!

When it comes to those eerie and uncanny little crime films, the sorts that revolve around characters that are bordering on scum and inhabit equally scummy surroundings, and additionally carry that wavering and bleak feel thanks to some pretty grotty cinematography and some very black comedy; Dead Bodies is the sort of film Paul McGuigan wishes he could make. Alas, the maddening and sporadic Gangster No. 1 as well as the equally all over the shop, but interesting exercise in surrealism mixed with realism, effort entitled The Acid House are the only ones of his we've got to go on so far. Dead Bodies is Robert Quinn's piece based on a Derek Landy script, a film that straddles the line between psychological horror and neo-noir; intermingling elements of crime and terror with themes linked to morality and unnatural, obsessive disorders.

McGuigan's British based crime efforts carry that wavy and distorted feel, like witnessing somebody's nightmare and having front row seats in the process. His films are able to disgust is some areas and amuse in others what with their outlandish and all-over-the-place approach. They carry a very dream-like sensibility despite being grounded in a very realistic, down-trodden, grimy looking world – the real world with as much-an emphasis on the horror and the terror of the situations his characters spawn than anything else. Dead Bodies is a film that tackles both some pretty harrowing character driven situations as well as a brief inclusion of a study of a delicate psychological mindset, only here, the film balances both the eccentricity of its characters; the terror of the scenarios they find themselves in and the questions of morality that arise much better.

Dead Bodies is effective and rather simplistic without ever feeling like manipulative. Its suggestive and knowing tendency to want to hammer home exactly what people are thinking and feeling does not detract from the experience. Early on, we meet Tommy McGann (Scott), a young lad whose girlfriend Jean (Davis) dominates him, his life and the screen whenever she's on for the brief time that she is. The point as to the fact his situation of living in a less-than desirable house; with a job stacking shelves and a partner he doesn't get on with at all well is put across in a distinct manner. As is the manner in which the audience are given distinct permission to dislike Jean what with the bratty, spoilt and expectant attitudes she so clearly possesses. Later on the film will linger, rather obviously, on a police officer's face as suspicions and tensions rise in what is clearly a cheap and easy way to tell the watching audience that our hero is not quite out of trouble just yet.

But compare this to Gangster No. 1, in which such is the episodic and misguided approach McGuigan applies to the material; that a vital, vital plot point arises when a character is spotted leaving a building by someone else out on a 'random drive' in a scene set several months after the previous one. The feeling isn't as grounded nor fulfilling. Dead Bodies' set up is dominated by Kay Davis' Jean; a would-be femme fatale just itching to pick a fight of some sort but just not really being able to find one. She has lead Tommy jumping through rings; going there, doing this and that without Tommy ever really reacting in the manner he could, principally because he is controlled by her promises of sex. The beginning builds a certain amount of tension because of Tommy's underplayed reaction to what's going on and it culminates in a distinct release when the initial incident happens, and Jean dies.

If the set up is simple enough then that's one thing, but the pinch of the project is the manner in which Tommy decides to rid Jean of his hands by burying her without informing anyone of her death bar a best friend. Things tighten when it transpires there was a second dead body in the exact same place Tommy buried Jean, with suspicions, denials and general trouble the all round ingredients of the day. It is at this point the film blurs the lines between noir and horror; indeed Tommy inhabits rather-a large, ominous, spooky and even Gothic house which he shares with an elder relative whom inhabits the upper areas of said house. This evokes memories of Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho and Bates' set up that he has with his mother, and where she's positioned. It is additionally no coincidence this would-be place of horror is the setting for Jean's unfortunate demise.

The placing of a dead body right in the hands of the hapless, male lead in order for it to act as the initial incident is a classic set up for any noir; from Ulmer's 1945 film Detour right up to a more recent, and more contemporary compared to Dead Bodies, 2006 film entitled Big Nothing. What this film unfolds into, is a twisted; rather unpredictable and quite frightening tale of genre hybridity and mind games told under a palette of distinctly drained visuals. The voice-overs and the treading on the fine line that the lead does for most of the film between right and wrong aid in pushing it into a realm of the neo-noir; if we consider the fact that the lead is, essentially, innocent and his murder charges are unfair then that's one thing, but his attitudes towards Jean initially saw him act without thought and his covering up of her death is the anti-thesis for dropping the murder charges. Dead Bodies is taught; entertaining to watch without ever feeling exploitative and provides a consistent tone for the rather nasty physical and psychological content being explored.

This one scores for plot alone. Although our hero is in a dead end job, he seems to have no problem pulling tasty girlfriends, but his current one has a fiery temper, and shortly after she turns up on his doorstep with her suitcase, they have a blazing row. He tells her to get out, but it is he who leaves, giving her a shove as he closes the front door. When he returns, she is lying dead on the carpet, having banged her head. What to do now? He summonses his faithful friend, borrows his car, and takes the body out in the sticks to bury it.

Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but as he is about to finish digging the grave, he has a big shock, there is another body in it already, a skeleton. He finishes what he started, recovers from the shock, and reports the dead girl missing. Then a woman is out walking her dog when...yeah, he should have dug deeper, but it's too late now. The other body is identified as the wife of a councillor who disappeared eight years previously. He is pulled in by the police but not as a suspect as he would have been only seventeen when the first murder was committed. The widower of the first victim is now running for high political office, and this is where it gets really complicated. A photograph of his wife is planted in our hero's apartment which is duly raided, so now he is the prime suspect in two murders, but guess what, it was the councillor who actually committed the first murder, as he finds out at the police station.

Next, he hits on a bizarre plan which sees him and his trusty helper break into the councillor's home, force him to drink a large quantity of alcohol, and ingest sleeping pills. The crazy idea is to fake a suicide attempt - complete with noose and suicide note typed on his computer - then he will presumably take the rap for both murders. But they are disturbed by the detective on the case, who seeing the councillor lying on the floor half dead, finishes the job.

As if that isn't enough, there are a couple of other twists. This film is described as black comedy; the script won't make you laugh, but you won't be sorry you watched it.

I saw Dead Bodies on BBC1 at the start of the week, it was on just past midnight (i could not sleep) so i thought i would be turning off the telly half way through, however it turned out to be an enjoyable grim little drama about a guy called Tommy who by accident causes his girlfriend (sexy Katy Davis) to fall and die and disposes of the body himself...then all sorts of paranoid things start to happen.

I don't want to give away the plot or any twists so check it out, because you get a great shot of Katy Davis's bum as shes having sex in this film and it rivals Nicole Kidman's butt shot in the much better thriller Malice.

I won't give an exact number of how many people bite the dust, but, for some reason, I expected it to be more. However, that's just my minor gripe. I actually enjoyed this film immensely.

It's about a layabout boyfriend whose girlfriend shouts at him one too many times. A horrific accident later and he's left working out the best way of disposing of a body (and there may be one or two more bodies to follow after that).

Most reviews touch on Danny Boyle's classic 'Shallow Grave,' as there are a few comparisons, but Dead Bodies isn't simply Ireland's answer to Boyle's first classic. Also, as others have mentioned the film does start off quite cheeky, almost as if it's trying to set the tone as a comedy. However, the comic feel starts to slowly dwindle as the bodies start to pile up (in not a very big pile). Therefore some people seem to lament the lack of quick-fire humour that the opening half hour displays.

The humour is well-written, so I can understand people missing it. However, if you just let it go and accept that the film ventures into something much darker then you should get something out of it.

It's one for people who like 'whodunits' who know who did it from the off.