Running time: 104 minutes
Starring: Stellan Skarsgard, Melissa George, Ashley Walters, Selma Blair
Rating 6 out of 10
George R Price was an American geneticist who developed many theories, most famously the notion that animals - and therefore humans - were essentially self-serving creatures. So depressed was he at his findings that the eminent scientist ended up giving away all of his possessions and committing suicide in a cheap hotel in the early 70s.
Screenwriter Clive Bradley and director Tom Shankland have taken Price's equation and fashioned a grimy, dark police thriller in which Stellan Skarsgard's tired New York cop comes up against the most unusual case of his career. Somebody is killing local hoodlums and dumping the body of their most dearly beloved alongside them.
In a twisting and turning affair, Skarsgard's jaded antihero enters a world he is uncomfortably close to, and in the manner of classic films noirs, discovers a number of truths about himself in the process.
This is not for the faint-hearted: although if scenes of granny torture and watching people having nails driven under their fingernails is your thing then you are in the right place. The film has been compared to the Saw franchise and it's not hard to see why.
Production values are reasonable on a modest budget with Belfast doing a surprising job of standing in for the Big Apple, and while it's unlikely to be a lot of people's cup of tea, the young director and his screenwriting partner have done their future careers no harm at all.
Paul Hurley
Screenwriter Clive Bradley and director Tom Shankland have taken Price's equation and fashioned a grimy, dark police thriller in which Stellan Skarsgard's tired New York cop comes up against the most unusual case of his career. Somebody is killing local hoodlums and dumping the body of their most dearly beloved alongside them.
In a twisting and turning affair, Skarsgard's jaded antihero enters a world he is uncomfortably close to, and in the manner of classic films noirs, discovers a number of truths about himself in the process.
This is not for the faint-hearted: although if scenes of granny torture and watching people having nails driven under their fingernails is your thing then you are in the right place. The film has been compared to the Saw franchise and it's not hard to see why.
Production values are reasonable on a modest budget with Belfast doing a surprising job of standing in for the Big Apple, and while it's unlikely to be a lot of people's cup of tea, the young director and his screenwriting partner have done their future careers no harm at all.
Paul Hurley
