Footsteps

Bloody, brutal and disturbingly beautiful, Footsteps' blend of taut psychological horror and unflinching graphic ultra-gore is definitely not for the squeamish. G.H. Evans's innovative thriller is infinitely clever (with artistic nods to Toshiaki Toyoda's Pornostar and flashes of the inimitable Takashi Miike at his darkest and most violent) but also visually gorgeous: the composition and imagery is beguilingly rich and compelling. In particular, the opening sequence ranks among the most uncomfortable and harsh beginnings to any movie I've seen and immediately draws the viewer into the grim world of Evans' nightmare urban dystopia.

The soundtrack suits the mood and visuals perfectly, matching ear-battering electronica to eye-watering gore and elegant, melancholic strings to passages of raw emotion, and occasionally interspersed with long moments of silence which serve to heighten the main character Andrew's obvious social isolation and introversion.

Evans' love for and expert knowledge of Japanese extreme movie-making has clearly informed Footsteps, and he has applied that dynamic to an inherently Western tale of societal breakdown, which will be familiar to anyone who lives in the UK in particular. The plot also faintly echoes Joel Schumacher's Falling Down as well as Martin Scorsese's seminal Taxi Driver, as a morality tale of an ordinary working joe who is given more than adequate incentive to revenge himself on society.

As for the performances, they are never anything less than intriguing and fully credible. Nicholas Bool is stunningly charismatic and powerful in the role of Andrew, portraying him as a somewhat sympathetic hero of sorts, an ingenue out of his depth in the criminal underworld, with just the right mix of aloofness and alienation: his lack of social skills is so accurate, it's almost painful to watch at times. Also of note is Mads Koudal, who delivers a superb, standout performance as the charmless, ruthless and utterly evil Paul.

Set in a clever and complex narrative structure of flashbacks and flashforwards (which occasionally recalls Japanese director Shinji Aoyama's equally intricate plotting), the story follows the failing fortunes of a depressed, uncommunicative young man named Andrew (Nicholas Bool), who is an unskilled factory worker by day and a lonely loser by night. He comes from a broken home - his mother died when he was young, and his father married a much younger woman - and has next to no emotional connection with his long-suffering girlfriend, Sera, who leaves him because he just won't talk to her.

It's not long before Andrew's fragile world is broken down even further by the death of his father, leaving him with no surviving family. The final straw comes at almost exactly the same time, when he is made redundant only days after his dad has died.

Reeling from this final tragedy, he goes home - but instead of unlocking the door and going inside to continue his life of loss, pain, being ground underfoot by Lady Luck, and honest graft being rewarded by nothing but poverty and misery, he makes a snap decision, he loses his last marble, and embarks on a very different life path indeed - one steeped in violence, rage and brutality.

In doing so, Andrew is discovered by a gang of snuff filmmakers, who organise and carry out real-life beatings, murders, sex and drugs, which they then capture on DV camera, and he begins his journey into the filthy underworld of criminal society - and into more danger than he could possibly ever have imagined.

Footsteps presents a disturbing portrait of a bleak, doomed society filled only with drudgery, the threat of imminent redundancy, living on or beneath the poverty line, joyless sex, vicarious thrills and the possibility that at any time, one might get one's head stove in with a baseball bat by someone with no motive other than to make money and get kicks out of your suffering. It's profoundly affecting and edgy, and will strike a deep chord with anyone who's ever felt that British society was going to the dogs thanks to binge drinking, late-night violence, the ever-darkening world of reality TV, and boredom. Yet in Evans' vision, even in the darkness there is still a glimmer of hope for redemption.

This brooding, nihilistic and enigmatic depiction of Britain's vile criminal underworld - or indeed, an extension of its mainstream Saturday night vicious chav culture, come to that - replete with sex, drugs, more drugs, in-your-face violence, amorality and no respect for human life is a highly accomplished and self-assured work and places G.H. Evans right at the forefront of young, cutting-edge British film-making.

When i was watching this film i thought that it was going to be yet another failed Britsh attempt at movie making, how wrong was I. The film is about Andrew who is a man that pushes everyone he loves away from him just to stop himself getting hurt again. The person playing Andrew is a young man called Nick Bool and his performance was outstanding. Andrew then meets two men who force people into a dark and depraved world. Andrew down on his luck with nothing going his way finds himself embroiled in a bitter world of dog eat dog. The subtle romantic pieces between Andrew and Sara make it a touching film that although violent never seems nihilistic. All the actors were very impressive, especially the person playing Andrews girlfriend Emma Powell, who was very good. And i must say a huge well done to everybody involed with this piece of work. Can't wait for the next one.

This film is noteworthy for being the directorial debut of Gareth Evans, best know for making the "Raid" films a few years after this. This film is something totally different.

It's a very low-budget crime film. It's very amateurish. The acting is pretty bad, with one notable exception. And the movie sounds terrible. The audio is very bad for the duration of the film, peaking all over the place and cutting in and out, which makes this very difficult and frustrating to watch. It's almost a chore for that reason. When sound is done well in a movie, it goes unnoticed by most. That's the goal. Here, however, it is all too noticeable and a constant distraction and hindrance. It makes the film feel like a rough cut, like it's unfinished.

It even feels like there are some scenes missing. I understand that they didn't want to spoon-feed us every answer here, but it feels like some stuff was unintentionally left out, as if they never got around to shooting it or just tired or ran out of time or money and gave up.

Apart from that, however, the story is actually decent. And the camerawork is fun. They really made the most out of their low-quality digital camera gear. The video editing is well-done as well. You can sort of see hints of things to come in this early film of his. Notably, the action and violence pretty well done compared to the more lacking dramatic moments, so it's no surprise Evans would go on to focus on more action-heavy films.

Additionally, the filmmakers made use of some pretty good locations for such a low budget film. They got creative when they had to, and it really pays off here. Overall, this film feels a bit like Christopher Nolan's "Following," except with really bad audio and not nearly as much of that low-budget charm.

Also worth mentioning are a few very fun, original parts that are like nothing I've seen anywhere else. Most of these take place during the film's climax, which is fun but still sounds just as bad as the rest of the film. There are three or four of these moments, and they're really wonderful, gritty, brutal and strange moments that almost make the whole experience worthwhile.

The film is highly flawed, but I think that its makers really learned something from it. I think it's thanks to this film that Evans was able to make a better film the next time around, and then an even better one after that. He's learned a lot and come a long way.

I read the previous review, and I thought I'd have my say.

For me footsteps, is an excellent film. If Hollywood violence and sexy performances are what you're after then possibly this film isn't for you. What footsteps delivers is one mans journey through darkness.

I commend Gareth Evans for this film, I don't quite understand what the previous comment meant when they said it was amateurish, for me this is one of the best films to be shot on DV. Excellent in style, and while the pace of the film does start quite slow, it does draw you in, I thought Nicholas Bool was fantastic in it. If your expecting Tarantino Esq dialogue and charisma then yes you'll be disappointed, but Evans has clearly not set out to make that sort of film and I thought he got an excellent performance out of Bool.

It has some heavy violence, and no its not pretty its horrible, but Mr Evans is clearly not setting out to make an exploitation picture here, he presents this dark world as, well dark. I believed I could have been in the scene, it was that realistic.

The film has won awards and rightly so, while everyone is entitled to their opinion I personally believe the last review was a poor one and that this is a film to be commended.

Have to admit, after reading the "glowing" reviews from the cast and crew I already expected this one to fail, and when I got to the negative comments I figured I was in for a tough time. But to be honest while its hardly deserving the praise its gotten it doesn't deserve the hate either. The beginning could've done with a bit more of anything the lack of dialogue had me almost skipping forward a number of times and the sound was off in places. But as it went along and once people started actually talking instead of just sitting around in silence looking moody I actually started to like the film despite its flaws.

Its far from a 9 or 10 star film but for what looks to be a low budget film I felt there was nothing that wrong with it. The gore is good in parts, there's a bit with a foot stab that looked good, the acting is decent enough couple of dodgy actors but mostly OK.

Not brilliant, not rubbish, worth a look.