Out of Bounds

Some of the comments on this film seem a little unreasonable. This is an enjoyable and refreshing take on clichés within the terror genre, and the actresses are particularly good and make it well worth watching.

Somebody made a comment about this being similar to the Hammer House of Horror TV series, and I'd agree with that and say it's a pretty good summation of the feel of the story. How refreshing to see a story that doesn't charge forward with an alpha male in the lead, and that doesn't make it's heroines into soppy losers. This is a really fun horror, doesn't amp up any violence gratuitously, does a good job of creating it's mood and whilst I wouldn't recommend going out of one's way to find it, it's worth the time.

One quibble, which would seem fair, Michael Elphick, god rest his soul, is wasted. Looks like this was his last role.

What a complete waste of time, redeemed only by occasional shots of the heroine's nipples. Other people say this is a sexy, English thriller. I'd say it's a formulaic hash of melodrama. A single positive note: some of the actors do deliver compelling and convincing performances, but what a terrible waste with this material.

To save you also watching to the end to find out what's going to happen, I'd like to try and explain the last half of the film. Really, I'd like to. But, my God, I can't. I've no idea why the victims end up dead, why the villains decide to kill them, or why the other proponents look on with horror. It doesn't make any real sense, except to justify pointless, end suspending twist, after pointless twist.

So before I waste more time on this film, bed.

Sophie Ward is excellent as the headmistress of a girl's school, who has to face sore trials in her relationships, with her husband, an American painter and teacher of art, and her favourite pupil Sophie Myles, who becomes his mistress in the very school premises, which of course must lead to complications. They both act rather foolishly, how careless and irresponsible can you get as a teacher in a girl's school, while the headmistress Sophie Ward at least tries to keep control, maintaining style and appearances. The story does not quite hold out until the end, there are some improbable flaws, while the interesting part is Sophie Myles' occult revelations of her lover when he is gone and believed dead or even killed. What kills the plot is the doctor's loss of control, who does some things a doctor never should or could do, while at first she appears as the most self-controlled person of all. The acting is good throughout, there are some interesting Gothic elements, as it could develop into a truly scary business, which it actually tries to do, but too many things go wrong, and in the end when a corpse is fished out of the pond it only adds to the general confusion, while we shall never know how all this mess really ended. We are left with some puzzling guesses, while our sympathies remain with the headmistress.

The writer apparently had 10 endings for his movie . . . So what did he do? He used all 10! One after another, after another, after another. Ad Nauseam! By the time I watched every ending I was so exhausted I didn't care who lived or died or how it really ended. Shame on you Merlin Ward!

The headmistress of an all-girl boarding school discovers her art-teacher husband is having an affair with a pupil. The husband disappears leaving his wife and the girl alone in the rambling old-school buildings during a school break.On paper this sounds like a good premise for a creepy thriller. In reality what we get is a series of unlikely killings, red-herrings a-plenty and an uneven tone that never pulls the viewer in to the story.

The biggest problem is the timid, anaemic direction for which writer Merlin Ward himself must take the blame. This is clearly a case of failing to identify the target audience. Is this an afternoon TV movie or a late-night thriller? In trying to hedge his bets Ward misses both targets. Clearly frightened of "Lolita" comparisons, he has Sophia Myles portray the schoolgirl at the heart of the story as the blandest of blondes. In similar vain, he makes only the merest of hints as to why headmistress Veronica Van Huet (an otherwise excellent performance by Sophie Ward) would not have had the girl expelled immediately.

The ending piles on the unlikely events thick and fast but fails to provide a satisfying explanation for them.

In truth it's probably not as bad as I've made it sound, but it is unsatisfying to see a missed opportunity to make a better movie. If only the Coen Brothers had been in charge this could have been a first-rate black comedy.