Possum

  Mathew Holness - Garth Marenghi himself, has written and directed a horror movie. Did you know that? I didn't know that. I've had Possum on my watch list for ages, and didn't know it was a Holness movie. What a mess, lessons learnt, etcetera etcetera.

 All of this is moot point anyway, because beyond its belonging to the horror genre, Possum is about as far removed from Marenghi's (doubtless haunted) wheelhouse as (in)humanly possible. It's an extremely British, glacially paced, bleak-as-all-hells throwback to arty psychological horror movies from the seventies. A fun time at the movies, in other words.

 Before the studio logos are over, reedy synths creep in - an instrument that I associate with sepia-toned Lassie re-runs and depression incarnate. We then get a glimpse of our protagonist Phillip (Sean Harris) while a Babadook-style creepy nursery rhyme runs in the background... and then this:

Just in case the soundtrack wasn't retro enough for you.

 The credits run over still images while various chemical and digital effects slowly distort them and the soundtrack devolves to a more standard but extremely effective discordant horror cacophony. It all effectively sets the tone for the whole movie, and that tone is creepy as fuck. I'm a sucker for a well-made, well deployed credit sequence.

 Phillip is returning to his childhood home in Norfolk after some unspecified event (another character  later calls it a scandal,) carrying only a huge leather duffel bag. The guy is clearly lugging some unresolved trauma around, which may or may not be symbolised by the bag and/or its contents; His gait is defeated, and he constantly looks like he was about to break out crying. Or as if he's the victim of a terminal case of constipation, take your pick. It's a fierce, convincing, one-note performance that aligns perfectly with the film's unremittingly bleak tone.

 As Phillip wanders around town and tries to get rid of the contents of the duffel bag (and other mysterious errands), little fragments of information emerge and allow us to build a picture of what's going on. An old family picture, a notebook with the nursery rhyme from the beginning, news of a missing boy (and the fact that it's happened before...)
 Early on Phillip learns that his estranged stepfather (Alun Armstrong, repulsively excellent) is still living in the derelict house, which at least explains why there's light and water. Their short, fraught conversations provide a little exposition - never enough to actually explain things, but giving us a bit more to go on.

 It's no spoiler to say that it's going to be About Something, with capital letters, so if you have something against that sort of thing then you best steer clear. But at the same time it never feels like elevated horror; the atmosphere of dread is slathered on so thickly it'd be silly to insist this isn't a true horror movie; It offers gallons of nightmare fuel without resorting to jump scares.
 It never matters if you know that the puppet (a great, creepy creation) poor Phillip's been carrying around is probably not really coming to life to torment its owner.

 Very little actually happens; the film is more of a tone poem, and the mystery at its core is not that complex. Its slow burn does build up to a conclusive set of revelations, though - a bit abrupt, but still satisfying.
 Holness has mentioned he was mainly inspired by German silent horror movies (both expressionist and not) and that's pretty illuminating, because he really nailed their uncanny feel.

 It's a beautiful-looking film, in its own depressing, shoestring-budget way; DoP Kit Fraser keeps the locations interesting and heavily textured, and the sound design is also excellent (it was handled by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, who also did the excellent soundtrack. As with the acting, both aspects dovetail beautifully with the script and direction. Everything lines up, giving Possum a purity that makes it pretty damn powerful.
 Holness's latest venture's been to write an actual book (and doing a book tour) as Garth Merenghi, and pitching/possibly doing another Darkplace which... well, I won't complain. But I hope he'll also take the time to do more proper horror movies; Based on the strength of this one, I'd be pretty keen to see what he comes up with.