Unhappy Birthday goes under the title Amen Island in Australia. Call it what you like, it is really, not very good. It is a UK production and is sort of experimental but definitely low, very low, budget.
Lots of handheld camera work, gratuitously sexually explicit in parts, random close ups of sheep and other oddities, awkward dialogue delivery, awkward acting and a very large unacknowledged indebtedness to The Wicker Man - and then there are the problems with the film.
Directors and writers Mark Harriott and Mike Matthews have experience in other areas of film making but this is their first stab at the steering of a production. There is a big jump between costuming and directing and both fall a bit short.
There is little sense of building tension or suspense. In fact, at times, there is little sense of coherence.
Cinematography is by Mark Hammond who has lots of experience in related areas but again stumbles a little. He seems compelled to use every cinematic technique in every scene which becomes quite unsettling for the viewer. On their own there are some fine moments but collectively they are a jumble.
The plot belts along at a breakneck pace. There is an incredible i.e. Unbelievable degree of acceptance and accommodation by the cast as things develop.
The film should be characterized by a rural, Gothic, folk horror sensitivity. It's not.
The climax and denouement, the tying together of loose plot threads, are hysterical, not in the funny sense but in the excessive sense.
I watched it expecting a homage to The Wicker Man. I was disappointed.
Lots of handheld camera work, gratuitously sexually explicit in parts, random close ups of sheep and other oddities, awkward dialogue delivery, awkward acting and a very large unacknowledged indebtedness to The Wicker Man - and then there are the problems with the film.
Directors and writers Mark Harriott and Mike Matthews have experience in other areas of film making but this is their first stab at the steering of a production. There is a big jump between costuming and directing and both fall a bit short.
There is little sense of building tension or suspense. In fact, at times, there is little sense of coherence.
Cinematography is by Mark Hammond who has lots of experience in related areas but again stumbles a little. He seems compelled to use every cinematic technique in every scene which becomes quite unsettling for the viewer. On their own there are some fine moments but collectively they are a jumble.
The plot belts along at a breakneck pace. There is an incredible i.e. Unbelievable degree of acceptance and accommodation by the cast as things develop.
The film should be characterized by a rural, Gothic, folk horror sensitivity. It's not.
The climax and denouement, the tying together of loose plot threads, are hysterical, not in the funny sense but in the excessive sense.
I watched it expecting a homage to The Wicker Man. I was disappointed.