LITTLE DEATHS

Somewhat buried beneath the hype Monster Pictures are ladling upon their release of THE ABC’S OF DEATH, you’ll find this interesting British horror anthology, also being distributed by them.

The title derives from the French term "les petite morts", which is a metaphor for orgasms. Which is appropriate, as all three of the 30-minute-or-so tales contained herein deal in sex and death.

First up is Sean Hogan’s "House and Home".

As the title suggests, this is a distinctively British offering. It opens with middle-class couple Richard (Luke de Lacey) and Victoria (Siubhan Harrison) checking out a couple of homeless teens who’ve recently taken to loitering near to their suburban home. In particular, Victoria seems interested in the girl, Sorrow (Holly Lucas).

A few days later, Richard approaches Sorrow on the street while her boyfriend’s not around. He claims that he and his wife are Christians who are in the habit of taking in transients and providing them with food, a shower etc before taking them back to from where they came.

Sorrow is tantalised by this prospect and is driven to Richard’s home, where Victoria suggests the girl take a shower while she prepares dinner.

But all is not what it seems – neither for Sorrow, or for Richard and Victoria. The latter half of this tale descends into rape, revenge, cannibalism … all the while, Hogan keeping a keen on familiar British themes such as class divides and sexual kinkiness.

Stylish on a clearly low budget, "House and Home" is also predictable and definitely a victim of wobbly performances. But in its favour it has a mean streak of black humour at its core, doesn’t hold back on the nastiness and Lucas’ naked frame should be enough to recommend it to most viewers.

All in all, "House and Home" is a solid opening gambit from the director of THE DEVIL’S BUSINESS.

Next comes "Mutant Tool". Andrew Parkinson, he of I ZOMBIE and DEAD CREATURES fame, writes and directs here.

It chronicles the plight of a struggling London couple. Frank (Daniel Brocklebank) is a former pimp-turned-drug dealer. His live-in girlfriend is Jen (Jodie Jameson), a recovering addict who’s determined never to go back to being on the game.

To help make ends meet, Frank has a sideline in providing shady doctor Reese (Brendan Gregory) with the nutrients required to keep his secret research subject alive. When Frank refers Jen to Reese in a bid to help her aim of remaining drugs-free, the doctor seizes the opportunity to try his experimental new drug out on her …

There are a couple of major plot points that I’m deliberately not divulging, because "Mutant Tool" is a film that’s best approached blindly. It’s crude – verbally and graphically – audacious, grim yet funny, and features a most welcome turn from Christopher Fairbank (Moxy from TV’s "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet") as Reese’s subject’s sinister babysitter.

Quite what it’s meant to be about, I couldn’t say. But ignoring any lack of subtext, "Tool" is good fun with a mean-spirited edge. Like "House and Home", it’s slickly photographed and edited, though the balance of gross-out humour and downbeat wrote-for-luck drama is a little too inconsistent for things to work fully.

Still, Parkinson ensures his segment will be the obvious talking point. I just don’t want to say how he achieves that here …

Finally, Simon Rumley – he of THE LIVING AND THE DEAD and RED, WHITE AND BLUE – winds proceedings up with "Bitch".

Pete (Tom Sawyer) lives with his sexy girlfriend Claire (Kate Braithwaite). He’s insecure of her sexuality, watching her closely as she flirts in the pub where he works, or in the local nightclub. Perhaps it’s because she’s clearly in a different league to him; maybe it’s because they enjoy a sado-masochistic relationship where she is the dominatrix and he, on all fours and wearing a doggy mask, is her submissive.

The one thing that openly bothers the otherwise tough cookie Claire is dogs. She can’t stand the furry mutts – they send her into very public panic attacks.

So when she betrays Pete, he calculates a painfully perfect, meticulously prepared revenge …

Those familiar with Rumley’s work will know what to expect: long passages of silence; weird sound designs; sparse dialogue; grim outcomes; unsparing misery. But in amongst all the doom and gloom, the director is savvy enough to explore our animalistic approach to sex and also comment upon the eternal male/female power struggle. Managing to crowbar some dark humour in too, he elicits fine performances from his young cast while crafting a moody short which is as aesthetically striking as it is disquieting.

"Bitch" is a fitting, satisfying end to events. It maintains the low budget look and the unmistakeable Britishness of the two previous stories, and also manages to up the tension slightly despite its generally slower pace.

LITTLE DEATHS is, like all horror anthologies, inconsistent. The three films all differ slightly in tone, and the pace feels odd overall because "House and Home" is the tightest of the three yarns told. But overall it provides a good evening’s entertainment, offers a fair showcase of what these directors can do and serves up a more-than ample amount of full-frontal nudity, sex and gore.

Monster’s DVD presents the film in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, proffering a clean and reasonably detailed 16x9 transfer with solid blacks and strong colours. There is a naturally washed-out look to Rumley’s segment, but elsewhere images are sometimes surprisingly vivid.

Unfortunately the presentation here is not fully uncut: our moral guardians at the BBFC have objected to 41 seconds of "sadistic humiliation during an act of sexual violence". What's left is still pretty strong stuff, and the cut isn't obvious at all to first-timers - but it's worth bearing in mind. An uncut DVD exists in Germany.

English 2.0 audio is clear and consistent throughout playback.

An animated main menu page offers viewers the opportunity of either watching the film as a whole, or jumping to each story individually. Should you choose the latter option, each segment then has its own 4-chapter scene-selection menu.

Extras begin with a decent, informative commentary track from the filmmakers.

The trio also turn up to offer frequent soundbites in a 22-minute "Behind the Scenes" featurette. The on-set footage is minimal, as he bulk of this sees the co-directors repeating stuff from the commentary track, such as how each vignette is thematically linked ("vaguely", Rumley concedes), discussing the importance of a good cinematographer, how the project began and the joys of working with practical special effects.

A 2-minute trailer also turns up, as do trailers for MIDNIGHT SON, EXCISION, THE FALLOW FIELD, THE INSIDE and THE ABC'S OF DEATH. The disc is also defaulted to open with the latter, which does a splendid job of making that film look a lot better than it actually is.

In truth, LITTLE DEATHS - while imperfect - is a much more tantalising proposition that ABC'S. Even in this BBFC-compromised form.

Review by Stuart Willis