Reviewed by Lizzie Husher
Stars Peter Ferdinando, Lorenzo Camporese, Ricky Grover, Neil Maskell, Ian Groombridge, Kerry Ann White, George Russo, Francis Pope, Vicky Murdock
Written by Gerard Johnson
Certification UK 18
Runtime 76 minutes
Directed by Gerard Johnson
A word of warning: do not watch this film on a full stomach. I made that mistake. And it’s not only the sickening displays of violence and gore but also the very environment created in this macabre film that leaves the viewer faintly nauseous. Gerard Johnson quite vividly evokes a lonely, backward world full of grim tragedy which is so far away and yet right on our doorstep.
The Tony of the title is an unemployed loser who fills his days with vintage action videos, walks round East London, and, er, homicide. Give him his dues he does try very hard to make friends; he reaches out to the disinterested Asian DVD seller by asking him if he prefers Karate to Kung Fu, and offers two desperate junkies beans on toast as they try to shoot up. But his anxious desire to connect to another person is occasionally replaced with a blood lust, but even then he sits between and even sleeps next to the resultant corpses in his desire for human connection. Tony’s oh-so blatant urban killings become even more sinister with every minute of the film that he goes undetected. He’s such a forgotten member of society that even trailing body parts and the stench of death cannot really get him noticed.
Peter Ferdinando is remarkable as the psychopathic serial killer with the NHS spectacles, the undercut and the dodgy moustache. It was surprising to discover after seeing the film that the actor is actually pretty attractive; he clearly spent a lot of time perfecting the supremely worrying mannerisms of the character whilst achieving his clammy, sallow appearance with a dedicated diet.
Perhaps equally important as a character is London, the underbelly of the city is superbly captured by David Higgs who illuminates the filth and the ashen streets by shooting in the glare of the summer sun. With this story, one of the densest and largest cities in the world is transformed into small-town Hicksville; something you may resent Johnson for once you’ve emerged from the cinema and stepped back into a now temporarily tainted London.
Occasionally the naturalistic elements are taken too far, and the improvisation can seem a bit stunted, however for the most part this is a strikingly well constructed and expertly unravelled ‘week in the life of’, it’s just simply not a very pleasant watch.