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The Living and the Dead

  • 2006
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 23m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
The Living and the Dead (2006)
A manic depressive man holds his ill mother captive in her home
Play trailer1:51
1 Video
1 Photo
DramaHorrorMysteryThriller

A descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh House for London to find a way to pay for the medical treatments for his wife Nancy. Alo... Read allA descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh House for London to find a way to pay for the medical treatments for his wife Nancy. Alone, his over-protected, delusional, adult son, James, fancies himself in charge of the man... Read allA descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh House for London to find a way to pay for the medical treatments for his wife Nancy. Alone, his over-protected, delusional, adult son, James, fancies himself in charge of the manor house with his terminally ill mother, and barricades the two of them into the house for... Read all

  • Director
    • Simon Rumley
  • Writer
    • Simon Rumley
  • Stars
    • Leo Bill
    • Roger Lloyd Pack
    • Kate Fahy
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    2.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Simon Rumley
    • Writer
      • Simon Rumley
    • Stars
      • Leo Bill
      • Roger Lloyd Pack
      • Kate Fahy
    • 35User reviews
    • 43Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 10 wins & 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    The Living and the Dead
    Trailer 1:51
    The Living and the Dead

    Photos

    Top cast9

    Edit
    Leo Bill
    Leo Bill
    • James
    Roger Lloyd Pack
    Roger Lloyd Pack
    • Donald
    Kate Fahy
    Kate Fahy
    • Nancy
    Sarah Ball
    • Nurse Mary
    Neil Conrich
    • Policeman
    Richard Cotton
    Richard Cotton
    • Nurse Mike
    • (as Richard Wills-Cotton)
    Alan Perrin
    • Nurse Bob
    Richard Syms
    Richard Syms
    • Vicar
    Hilary Hodsman
    • Auntie Pat
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Simon Rumley
    • Writer
      • Simon Rumley
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews35

    5.82.5K
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    Featured reviews

    4Vantec

    Pointless

    'The Living and the Dead' portrays the lives of a British noble, his wife and their adult son set in a spectacular country estate. The good days are long past. The estate is in disrepair and at risk of forfeiture, the wife bedridden most of the film and the son clinically psychotic. That sums up the bulk of what can be said with relative certainty about the plot.

    The rest is a tumbling mash of conflicting alternate realities, displaced time-lines, hallucinatory visions and fast motion. Director/writer/producer Simon Rumley loves the fast motion. Leo Bill as the son spends much of the film at ten-fold speed, racing through vast expanses of interior, arms and face animated in a failed attempt to impart the viewer his perspective. It doesn't work, quickly growing tiresome and obvious. Rumley's so committed to the technique that clouds, the advancing sun, branches, vehicles, doctors and nurses eventually join the fray. Repeatedly. It's difficult to comprehend why since it has no bearing on the quiet desperation Rumley's grasping at, instead evoking the feel of an Eighties music video or a VW commercial.

    It's symptomatic of the film's jettisoning coherency for atmosphere. The first half contradicts the back with no hint of resolution offered. The son proves more criminally insane than clinically yet no reason offered why he wasn't institutionalized. Early in the film when still portrayed as a happy idiot the father is constantly abusive and stern. Fatherly warmth doesn't appear until unconscionable acts are committed. The son roams free past the point any modern Western nation would have seen him incarcerated. We never know why. Likewise the rest of the plot is so artificial and bent to the requirements of intense moments all believability is lost and with it any concern for the characters. The one bright spot is Kate Fahy's terrific portrayal of the wife. She creates the few and fleeting scenes in which the film works as intended. Not content with these minor successes Rumley brushes them aside to make room for more mind-bending plot twists, snatching total failure from the jaws of mediocre success. A movie for the patient only.
    8snapperlarry21

    Good, mostly

    Unlike the previous comment(er) on this film, I'd have to say that I quite enjoyed the film, also saw at the RFF, when quite a few people walked out. The thing is you see is that I am film fodder, and I find many things enjoyable that bemuse the people I know. This is a film that dwells on suffering, and, knowing first hand what it is like to suffer, and be around suffering, I can honestly say that the film engages the element of undue pain very well. Sometimes within films it is necessary to linger upon things for longer than some viewers would like, and this is one of those cases. I hope that the collaborators of this film will not be forced into procrastination by the previous comment(er), as I would very much like to see further works of the same mould, albeit without having to travel across the sea to view them. For most people you'll need to watch this film twice to really find the intensity that was so brilliant, there are gaps, but then again, TITANIC is the highest ever grossing film, who knows perfection?
    bazibazbaz

    Horrific!

    This is possibly the worst film i have ever seen. I actually saw the premiere in Rotterdam Film Festival, and whilst many people walked out I stayed to the bitter end. But that was mainly because I didn't want to lose my friends. Self indulgent is a word often overused in the arts, and some of the best music and film is incredibly self indulgent, but behind that indulgence there is often genius. Unfortunately here there is nothing, not even a plot. The mistake the director Simon Rumley makes is to dwell on the suffering of the characters, all in a kind of 'gross out' adolescent way, without any insight, or any freshness. All the best films now tend not to be so mawkish, making The Living and The Dead seem like a bad student project from the 1970s. There's no lightness of touch here and no humour. Perhaps we're supposed to laugh at mentalist James in the same way we laugh at Julian Donkey Boy. But he's just not that funny and he has none of the demented hilarity of Donkey Boy. Like the rest of the cast, he's just a stereotype, an extremely annoying stereotype. All you'll learn from The Living and The Dead is that some people clearly have much more money than sense. And I'm not talking about any of the characters in the film here.
    6lastliberal

    When you leave, I'm the one to look after our house, I'm the one to look after Mummy.

    I just finished watching two seasons of The Vicar of Dibley, and I thought I would see Roger Lloyd-Pack (Bartie Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) in something more serious.

    He is a country gentleman whose son (Leo Bill, Alice in Wonderland, Kinky Boots) is schizophrenic and whose wife (Kate Fahy) is dying. He has to leave home, so he hires a nurse (Sarah Ball) to watch both of them.

    The son locks out the nurse and cares for his mother. This proves to be extremely embarrassing to Mom. And, if two pills are prescribed, then taking a dozen or more will get you better quicker. Mom went from embarrassment to fear.

    The sinking into schizophrenia is disturbing and frenetic and may upset some viewers, but it is an emotion packed film that bears watching.
    9rboblee-1

    Rumley succeeds where others fear to tread.

    Imagine a retelling of "The Shining" (1980) by Stanley Kubrick - but instead of Steven King's menacing snow storm and ghosts of the dead at the Overlook Hotel - this nuclear family is threatened by the bankruptcy of the landed aristocracy by health care, death by terminal cancer, and an over-protected adult son who is permanently child-like and requires vast infusions of anti-psychotics. Add to this helplessness, depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, and an oedipal-complex repressed by English manners, and you have the explosive makings for "The Living and the Dead" (2006).

    Kubrick's famous emotional distance from the story is replaced by Rumley's intense personal need to pull the audience into the madness which modern medicine creates with false hopes and budget efficiencies, and especially, its patent inability to assist the emotional needs of both the terminal patient and their families. Rumley succeeds where others fear to tread by plunging the audience into the thick of it.

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The film is dedicated to the memory of Sheila and David Rumley, parents of director Simon Rumley. Three months after his father had passed away from a heart attack, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died three months later.
    • Quotes

      James: When you leave, I'm the one to look after our house, I'm the one to look after Mummy.

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    FAQ16

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 23, 2006 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Living in the Home of the Dead
    • Filming locations
      • Tottenham House, Wiltshire, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Spectrum Media Entertainment
      • Vita Pictures
      • Giant Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • £650,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 23m(83 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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