🔗 Share this article Game Review: Band Frontman Jason Williamson Takes On Character in Sceptical Examination at 90s Rave Culture Produced by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this sharp-edged if slight first film turns a sceptical eye on the ecstasy-fueled club scene. Self-serving drug user David (Marc Bessant) first robs an unconscious dealer, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own family home. In no time, he's upside down in the remains of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Woodsman (vocalist Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with impatience toward townies, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those loud individuals from up on the heath.” A Shaky Start and Darkly Funny Confrontation The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on meticulously detailing David’s attempt to extricate himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his everyday life. The bigger point – that the ecstasy generation were mainly focused on number one – is firmly made. But these brief episodes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Woodsman arrives, fuming after David kills his dog. Still, a grimly amusing standoff unfolds – David eager to get away; the Woodsman withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, determined to dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley. Stylish Imagery and Music Video Vibe There is only one key story turn, but it results in a comically executed rampage on the forest trails that dips close to folk horror. Filmmaker John Minton finally gets to go all in with his ostentatious visuals: where he was hunkered down doing impressionistic closeups of insects in the light in the early stages, he now lets rip with the full psychedelic grand display, soundtracked to a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an extended promo than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could emulate Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into making the leap from the UK video industry. The film releases in British and Irish theaters from 17 November.