Body at Brighton Rock – An Uninventive Thriller

Body at Brighton Rock is one of those films that are easy to figure out based on the title. However in this film’s case, it doesn’t offer much beyond its premise which only hinders it as a whole. To its credit, it does take full advantage of its low budget (though sometimes the low budget showed). As mentioned, the film was about a part-time park employee named Wendy (Fontes) who would find herself trekking a rougher trail that she was used to before coming across a dead body and potential crime scene. Now lost and having no means to find her way back with the evening approaching, she would have to brave the elements, the wildlife, and herself while forced to spend the evening securing the crime scene until rescue could arrive the following morning.

What in essence was a survival story focusing on Wendy lacked enough character depth to every become engaged in her on an emotional level. It was very easy to not care about her ordeal as Wendy was too thin of a character to be invested in her survival. Wanting to prove herself to her more experienced friends, she took on that trek which proved to be more than she could handle. Understandably shook by her predicament, Wendy’s experience quickly became something much different as weird stuff started happening around her. The reason for these nonsensical occurrences was never made clear nor were there circumstances as to how to dead body got to where it did.

The story from there wasn’t the most original and derivative thus making it more on the predictable side, devoiding it of any tension and/or suspense very quickly. This along with the lack of a connection with the main character made the film dull for the most part. With the premise the way it was, the film would remain on the same note all the way to the end as it couldn’t seem to offer anything other than the occasional jump scare and a perpetual look of confusion and surprise on Wendy’s face. After a while, this got repetitive and old very fast. A relatively short film, clocking in at just under 90 minutes, it never felt like it ever got off the ground after a promising start.

Despite everything, Fontes performance as Wendy was the best part of the film. Because she appears in the majority of the film, the film lives or dies with her. Ultimately, enjoyment of the film depends on the relatability and likability of Wendy. While Fontes was neither relatable or unrelatable nor likable or unlikable, she was still somewhat compelling to watch and did a decent job at carrying the film but she could only go as far as the material can take her.

At the end of the day, you may have seen this survival story before but it won’t take you long to survive this one.

*still courtesy of Magnet Releasing*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.