🔗 Share this article Game Review: Sleaford Mods' Jason Williamson Assumes Character in Critical Look at 90s Rave Culture Helmed by Portishead co-founder the musician-producer, this scabrous if undernourished first film casts a critical gaze on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Venal pillhead David (Marc Bessant) first robs an passed-out supplier, then in a later recollection tries to burgle his own parents. Before you can say, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (vocalist Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for townies, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.” A Shaky Start and Grimly Amusing Confrontation The film begins uncertainly, lingering excessively on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his normal activities. The bigger point – that the rave-era youth were mainly focused on number one – is clearly conveyed. But these brief episodes are too thin to adequately prepare us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, fuming after David strangles his dog. Nevertheless, a grimly amusing standoff unfolds – David desperate to escape; the Woodsman denying his container of cider, determined to soaking him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, exuding ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley. Stylish Imagery and Music Video Sensibility There is only one key story turn, but it leads to a comically executed rampage on the woodland paths that dips close to folk horror. Filmmaker John Minton at last unleashes with his showy imagery: where he was hunkered down doing artful shots of bugs in headlights in the early stages, he now lets rip with the full lysergic 21-gun salute, accompanied by a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an extended promo than a complete narrative, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into making the leap from the UK video industry. The film releases in UK and Irish cinemas from November 17.