Music, Style & Culture

Red White & Blue

Three terrific performances await those strong enough to endure this fascinating tale of morality and vengeance.

Released in cinemas 30th September 2011.

British director Simon Rumley follows up 2006's nightmarish psychological drama The Living and the Dead with a similarly disturbing film. Once again, Red White & Blue doesn't sit neatly in the horror genre, but is deeply unsettling.

In simple terms, it's a brutal revenge thriller based around three flawed characters whose lives collide with tragic consequences. We first meet Erica (Amanda Fuller), a emotionally numb woman who hurries away from the frequent one night stands she instigates, as if she is repulsed by further intimacy. In her new job at a hardware store, she meets Nate (Noah Taylor), a war veteran with a history of torturing animals. Nate, despite his sociopathic tendencies, is fascinated by Erica, and feels fiercely protective of her. The pair start a curiously tender and asexual relationship.

The final character in this triad of doom is Franki (Marc Senter), an arrogant musician and one of Erica's early conquests (he's part of a graphic gang bang that opens the film). Along with the frustration over his struggling music career, he is dealing with a cancer-ridden mother whose husband fled in their time of need. Upon the film's midway shock reveal, Rumley puts his viewer through gut-wrenchingly tense hell.

Vividly shot on location in the grimier parts of Austin, Rumley keeps his camera loose for uncomfortably claustrophobic, invasive close-ups once the going gets tough. Do not underestimate how upsetting some of the scenarios are - this hardened horror fan was left literally trembling. Elsewhere the photography is crisp and striking, setting off the louche sensuality of Fuller in her well-worn cowboy boots. Rumley structures his own script to be disorienting, but he has complete control of his tragedy.

A film so challenging in terms of sex and violence needs a strong cast, and Rumley hit paydirt with three committed lead actors. Taylor is astonishing, playing against type as an unhinged, unreasonable man with no boundaries when it comes to the woman he loves. Psycho-Taylor is a terrifying force, but the gentle actor amazing finds humanity in a sadist. Senter does well to make his selfish wannabe rock star sympathetic, but is also worryingly believable when it comes to his more disgusting behaviour. The plaudits must go to Fuller for the most difficult role - both physically and emotionally. She is at once vulnerable, cruel and heartbreaking in a complex character with many burdens.

Three terrific performances await those strong enough to endure Red White & Blue's fascinating tale of morality and vengeance.

Rating: 8/10