SIGHTSEERS

UK, 2012, 88 minutes, Colour.
Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Eileen Davies.
Directed by Ben Wheatley.

Let’s hope you don’t encounter sightseers like Chris and Tina when you are caravanning around Yorkshire and the Lakes District. You might not get home, especially if you get into Chris and Tina’s bad books, not a difficult thing to do at all.

This small budget black comedy is very black indeed, despite the outdoors locations and the eccentric tourist sites that the couple visit (tramway museum, pencil museum…). It was written by the leads who are also stand-up comics. The dialogue and the delivery, deadpanly ironic and simple, are very important.

Tina lives with her hypochondriac mum and looks to have few prospects in life. She was devoted to her dog Poppy – there is a flashback to a death scene which will mean some looking away aghast while others will burst out laughing. It is that kind of film. Mum is the kind who keeps ringing up during the trip to manipulate her daughter into coming home to look after her. Chris seems a jovial kind of bloke, eccentric interests certainly, but with a charming way as far as Tina is concerned. That is until he runs over a man.

Chris does not take to criticism kindly and senses others’ competitiveness (not his own) with deadly earnest. His opponents do not live to see the day.

Here is awful behaviour, conscienceless and cheery, presented as if Tina and Chris really have very few cares in the world – and it is easy to get rid of those. Which makes them all the creepier. In fact, Tina is becoming rather exhilarated by the disposals as the trip goes further north. And, especially, as they reach the end of their road and prepare for a culmination – which doesn’t quite work out as anticipated.

You have to be in the mood for this kind of thing, a relishing delight in really black comedy.

1. A critical success? Popular success? Black comedy? British black comedy?

2. The titles, the tone, the map and the UK sites during the credits, the actual locations throughout the film? The feel for tourism in the UK? The musical score?

3. The screenplay, the leads as stand-up comics and television performers? The ordinariness of their characters, pathos, cantankerous, innocent yet deadly, naive yet ironic, the horror touches?

4. The introduction to Tina, her age, lack of experience, living with her demanding mother, yearning for something more, the beginnings of the relationship with Chris, her hopes? The erotic odyssey?

5. The introduction to Chris, his age, work, eccentric hobbies and interests, his needs, relationship with Tina, planning the trip, his control, his antagonism towards Tina’s mother?

6. The mother, the parody of the possessive mother, hypochondriac, abusive to Chris, the phone calls during the trip?

7. The trip, the plan, Tina and her being exhilarated, naive, her changing throughout the journey, her reactions to Chris, to the victims, to her mother’s phone call, exhilaration with the killings, rationalising, the final choices, the suicide pact – and the ironic ending?

8. Chris, imposing his itinerary, dominating Tina, narcissistic, the truth about his unemployment, his personality?

9. The range of victims, the initial running over the man on the road, tourists, their sense of achievement, their complementing each other in their reactions? Hiding bodies, irresponsibility, vindictive and callous? Not blaming themselves?

10. The variety of characters they met, the family in the caravan, their talking and sharing, the murder on the moors? The man and the littering, his threats? His being pushed over the cliff? Tina and her ambition to kill? The further people on the road? The encounter with the bride-to-be?

11. The overall effect, the build-up of the characters, the trip, the murders, the suicide pact – and Tina pushing Chris over?

12. Audience response to black comedy? The reaction to the death of Poppy, people looking away or laughing? Black comedy as combining both?