Sightseers

Showing @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle until Thu 6 Dec

Ben Wheatley / UK / 2012 / 88 min

We all feel the pressures of modern life; from the litterbugs who blight our landscapes to the hen parties that ruin a romantic meal, social friction has become part of inner-city living. What better way to escape such annoyances than by heading north on a caravan holiday? Chris and Tina (Steve Oram and Alice Lowe) have this very idea, setting off on an English pastime adventure to explore pencil museums, rural villages and campsites. But after Chris accidentally kills a man by reversing over him, it awakens something sinister within him, a sadistic liberation which allows him to vent by bludgeoning those who cause irritation.

The same level of deliberate violence steps into Sightseers from director Ben Wheatley’s Kill List (2011), but is diluted by the eccentric humour. Chris and Tina are made for each other as they storm onto the warpath against those unlucky individuals caught in the line of fire. The range of comedy turns Sightseers into a kind of screwball horror, with whiffs of stranger danger found in The League of Gentlemen to absurdist jibes about the upper-classes recalling a hugely distinct Python tone. Oram and Lowe, who also co-wrote the film, deliver startlingly convincing performances and give new meaning to the phrase, ‘it’s grim up north’. You’ll certainly think twice about caravanning next summer.

Listings: