|
| |
Directed by:
Johannes Roberts
Written by:
Johannes Roberts
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
| Released: |
2010 |
| |
|
| Genre: |
HORROR
|
| |
|
| Origin: |
UK |
| |
|
| Colour: |
C |
| |
|
| Length: |
79 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
ANTI Reviews
|
| | | As the school empties for the evening a group of nameless, faceless children in hoodies and black balaclavas descend, clambering around on PE apparatus in a statedly sub-human manner while they hunt down the school's staff. A lack of context for for this apart from the earlier reiteration of media scares marks a one-dimensional approach to the issue. As time goes on and the initial politics are forgotten, you realise F isn't a film trying to make a statement, just trying to find a workable set-up for an exploitation storyline, clumsily blundering into politics in the process. This doesn't really excuse the message it puts across though, just shows a lack of awareness on the director's part. This approach is common in exploitation cinema and often forgiven if the rest of the film gives enough thrills, but F's storyline is much too slight, offering little more than a simple game of hide and seek as Mr Anderson and a dwindling cast of incidental characters avoid their nameless pursuers. Unremarkable violence and a curious lack of tension contribute to a very familiar experience. A cliched score of hoarsely whispered nursery rhyme-style music is pretty embarrassing, hinting that F's creators are unfamiliar with the modern sophistications of the genre. Nevertheless F is actually quite watchable, in the most part down to believable dialogue and a cast of experienced actors, David Schofield being particularly good in the central role. The direction is competent if a little bland, and a professional slickness prevails despite the low budget. But F fails to be either the social commentary or exploitation horror films it wants to be, falling short of being anything but a nod to either, a forgettable film that could have done so much more with its subject matter. | | | | (Ben Austwick, Quiet Earth) | | | While there’s the occasional gory shock – an assistant with her jaw ripped off, for instance, or the janitor set on fire in a dumpster – there’s little here to make you want to tick F off the list of wearily similar horrors on which it belongs | | | (Neil Smith, Total Film) | | | Though it may offer a chilling portrait of social ills and an extrapolation of the violence faced by teachers, F is repetitive and contrived in its execution, as the staff get isolated one by one and the faceless killers climb around the place like spider monkeys picking them off. It’s moderately effective once but not over and over, and as horror it simply doesn’t work. | | | (Paul Greenwood, Alone in the Dark) | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
, Eliza Bennett 
, Ruth Gemmell 
