Thursday 23 August 2012

REVIEW - The Seasoning House ★ ★ ★ ★

Review by Damon Rickard
Stars Rosie Day, Sean Pertwee, Kevin Howarth
Written by Paul Hyett & Conal Palmer
Certification UK 18 
Runtime 89 minutes
Directed by Paul Hyett

England's answer to Greg Nicotero moves away from the special make up effects and goes behind the camera to bring us this harrowing tale of Angel (Rosie Day in a breath taking debut), a girl ripped from her home during the war in the Balklans.

In war torn zones, the military are kidnapping girls and selling them into the sex trade where they are sold to militia and civilians alike.  We are introduced to deaf and mute Angel is one of these girls, a girl who sees her mother murdered in front of her before being delivered to a brothel where she becomes the personal sex slave to its owner. A birth mark on her face makes her tainted goods so the owner, Viktor (Howarth), uses her to dope the other girls with heroin, making them more amenable to their visitors, then clean them up afterwards.  When she is away from the prying eyes of her captors she spends her time crawling through the limited space of the ventilation system, until an unplanned incident brings her head to head with the men who took her from her family.

Make no odds, The Seasoning House is not a comfortable watch but it is impossible to take your eyes from it.  Based on true events of atrocities that happened during the war, Hyett brings us into a degenerate world of men willing to pay for sex with tied up and drugged women, as well as some who pay extra to be rough with them.  Some of the girls do not survive their "customers".  The performances, especially from Day (watch out for her, she will be a name to take notice of) had to be good to make the film believable and to care about Angel.  Howarth gives us a dark turn as a man just as at ease plunging a knife into the neck of a young girl to simply make a point as he is pouring a shot of whiskey. 

Hyett builds a relationship between Angel and Viktor that enables the power dynamic between the two of them to change during the film.  This is integral to some of the major turns in the story and needed to be handled delicately so as not to be too in your face about it but also sustain a sense of believability with the interaction of the two.  

The Seasoning House is violent and gripping but never feels exploitative which was needed to ensure you retained a high level of empathy for Angel.  It's hard to use the word enjoyed with this film but it is a superb piece of art that fully deserves wider recognition.  If you get the chance and can stomach something more hard hitting than your usual Hollywood attempts at horror then I highly recommend this film.  

A tragic tale of love, loss and death, this is one film you won't forget in a hurry.

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