This is a haunting, blackly comic, unsettling smasher of a movie. The cold and desolate Scottish landscape is the perfect backdrop to such a chilling film, evoking a similar menace that the jagged vastness of Ayres Rock played in ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock.’ Every character, no matter how minor is unique and developed. The script is sharp, the matter of fact way the group’s unorthodox lifestyles are expressed with banal disinterest is both frightening and hilarious. These are no cardboard cut-out’s with sex disorders. The naturalistic DOGME like acting gives the viewer an almost voyeuristic feeling. What perhaps unnerved me most though, is that such places do exist. Many of the rituals the group take part in and their ultra-libertarian ethos are things I know many people to have experienced. This factor preys on the mind like urban mythology, making you imagine even more than is portrayed in the film. I’ve not felt so scared by a film in a long time. Reviewers drew obvious comparisons between this and the classic, ‘The Wicker Man,’ a film that I dearly love. I would say it now has a worthy rival. It’s also heartening to know that someone (other than Ken Loach and Peter Mullen) can still make brilliant Scottish films. Don’t watch alone.

Laura Hird is the Orange and Whitbread nominated author of the collection, ‘Nail and Other Stories’ and novel, ‘Born Free.’ Her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies internationally. Her new collection of short stories is due to be published by Canongate Books in May 2005. She runs and edits her own loosely arts-related website on which she seeks out and publishes new poetry, short stories, reviews, interviews etc. She was born and lives in Edinburgh.

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.