Out of Bounds

In the 1970s this modest entry would have been a 60-minute TV episode from an anthology such as Brian Clemens's "Thriller" or "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense". To make it feature-length, too many false endings have been tacked on; but the substance is just about intriguing enough to keep a late-night television viewer (if not, apparently, a British distributor) watching to the positively final climax.

A girls' boarding school at half term affords plenty of shots of the heroine, Sophia Myles, creeping along deserted corridors and entering empty rooms, or being walked in on by a trio of sinister older women. Miss Myles, very much in the buxom English rose mould of Kate Winslet, acquits herself competently without lurching into the irritating extremes of scream queen on the one hand or dopey wide-eyed dupe on the other: she projects intelligence as well as courage.

Sophie Ward as her steely headmistress and Celia Imrie-- in a role as an art-dealing doctor which is outside her normal persona as a glamorous but trustworthy Scotch matron-- keep audiences guessing about their motives. The men are not as satisfactory. Sophia's object of adulterous affection, an American art teacher married to Ms Ward, is less a character than a McGuffin. Michael Elphick, sadly bloated in his last big-screen appearance, has little to do.

The soundtrack is too replete with creepy music: the natural sounds of a big old building in the depths of the English countryside could have been used more. There are a few wince-making genre clichés, such as Sophia flinching when a sheet is pulled back and she has to ID a disfigured corpse. But this is a British suspenser which keeps its language clean, aims above the gut and avoids mid-Atlanticism. It deserved better than a late-night BBC1 premiere without even a write-up in the 'Radio Times'; if the BBC had produced it as a TV movie, they would have talked it up.

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.

This was well acted especially by the two female leads. However, the twists were overdone...especially Celia Imrie as a Psycho. She being a doctor how come she did not know Mr Van Huet was properly dead!?

Other characters, Sophie ward's first husband and his second wife didn't instill belief, when all others did.

Also, Mr Van Huet also became a sudden Psycho, killing Michael Elphick(not wholly sure why, was Mr Elphick in on his "death") and, so the viewer, may believe at the end going to kill Sophie Myles.

If it had not gone slightly over the top and crappy other characters, it could have been a really eerie/mystery film in the old Gothic style.

It's a shame to the male world that Sophie Ward is a lesbian.

But Overall enjoyable.

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.