DVD review (region 1 & 2)
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
Starring Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith, Jennifer Ellison, Steve O'Donnell, Doug Bradley
Release date Out now (region 1); 14 July 2008 (region 2)

Bickering brothers David (Serkis) and Peter (Shearsmith) kidnap the foul-mouthed Tracey (Ellison) and hide away at an isolated country house. Unfortunately Tracey’s father sends a couple of violent goons to track them down. Oh, and the nearby farmhouse is home to a mutated maniac…

Writer-director Paul Andrew Williams follows up his bleak but brilliant debut London to Brighton with a wildly different offering that shows he’s nothing if not versatile.

This time instead of looking to the tradition of British social realism, Williams draws on 1970s and early 80s horrors such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Yet The Cottage is nothing like Wolf Creek or the numerous other recent updates of the genre. Instead, this is a knockabout comedy with the emphasis firmly placed on fun.

Most of The Cottage’s chuckles come from the relationship between its squabbling siblings. Serkis, as the slightly more clued-up David, and Sheersmith, as the weedy, henpecked Peter, make for a nice double act, and Brookside alumni Jennifer Ellison is also great fun as the foul-mouthed hostage from hell.

It's just as well that the performances are so good, as the entire first half of the movie is devoted to the bickering banter between the characters in their remote setting. The film switches tack half way, at which point it starts delivering on the gore and scares, and which Williams pulls off with the aplomb of a seasoned horror veteran.

The Cottage isn’t a movie that tries to do anything especially radical, and the dialogue is perhaps a little over-reliant on screamed obscenities rather than genuine wit at times. But as long as you’re not expecting another London to Brighton, this is a slickly put together affair with plenty of laughs and inventively bloody effects; the kind of British horror-comedy that comes along all too rarely. Keep watching after the credits for an extra scene. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 7/10
Slick, sick and amusing, The Cottage cements Paul Andrew Williams’s status as one of today’s most unusual British directors.