(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="592" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="592"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table>    <p>Jane's (Mhairi Calvey) is really down on her luck, she has been evicted from her last flat weeks ago, has been sleeping in her car, has just lost her job, and now her car's about to break down - so when she learns she might be up for an inheritance from her aunt Alex (Emma Spurgin Hussey), who has only recently taken her own life, she's cautiously optimistic. At her aunt's mansion, Hobbes House, her optimism quickly vanishes though when she meets her estranged and entitled sister Jennifer (Makenna Guyler) at the reading of the will, and that she's accompanied by her money-hungry boyfriend Nigel (Kevin Leslie) doesn't help very much either. Things quickly get out of hands when auntie's lawyer (Jo Price) is gravely injured in a freak accident and dies when Jane's car actually does break down on the way to the hospital. And suddenly the caretaker of auntie's mansion, Naser (Waleed Elgadi) gets all nervous and insists on getting them back to the mansion before ...<p>Back at the mansion, it's decided to lock Naser away as he not only behaves odd, he might actually also have killed auntie - and a bit of xenophobia plays into this as well as Naser's originally from Syria. However, everybody quickly reverses their preconceptions about Naser when auntie's lawyer comes back from the dead to attack them and they're saved only thanks to Naser, who then tells them about the family curse, that Hobbes House must never been sold or given away because it's guarded by all those who've died here, and who roam the premises every night. Of course, it <i>is</i> night right now, and the safest place for our ragtag team would be anywere else but in the mansion, really, but whatever they try to get away they fail, and eventually Naser dies a hero's death saving the others while Nigel is revealed as the one who has driven auntie to suicide. But however at odds Jane, Jennifer and Nigel are, they have to stick together to make it out alive - if they even <i>can</i> make it out alive ...<p> <p>The idea of merging the old dark house with the zombie subgenre might not be new in the truest sense of the word, but it feels very fresh in this film, basically because it concentrates on telling a strong story with fleshed out characters and character conflicts first, and really fits the undead theme onto everything else rather nicely rather than just tag it on for added effect or make it so central to the narrative that the actual story gets lost in the process. And the direction goes along with that, staying focused on the characters and choosing suspense and atmosphere over cheap shocks, while the ensemble cast all give very solid performances to make this a pretty awesome piece of horror cinema. <p>  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2020"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>