‘Sightseers’ Review

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It’s been a little over a year since I reviewed Ben Wheatley’s Kill List for Film Pulse (which was one of my earliest reviews for the site), and here I am again. Another Wheatley film filled with unflinching brutal violence displayed in the most nonchalant manner possible, but this time around, Wheatley’s newest film, Sightseers, comes with an injection of comedy. It’s a road-trip comedy with a smattering of ultra-violence. It’s a dark, dark…dry…pitch-black comedy involving a couple on holiday.

The couple is played by Steve Oram and Alice Lowe, who also co-wrote the script together with additional material provided by regular Wheatley contributor – writer and editor Amy Jump. Oram and Lowe play Chris and Tina, respectively, as a new couple going on their first holiday together, caravaning through England with stops at the Pencil Museum, National Tramway Museum and, of course, the Dingly Dell. All of this to the chagrin of Tina’s mother, Carol (Eileen Davis), who doesn’t trust Chris and his caravan and she has good reason.

There is an underlying ominous tone throughout the beginning of the film that comes to fruition at a stop at the National Tramway Museum. After a small altercation with a litterbug that then leads to an accident. Caravan vs. litterbug; spoiler…caravan wins. However, was it really an accident? The viewer gets a glimpse of a smile from Chris’s face, and we come to find that Chris enjoys a bit of murder. It’s a hobby…much like Tina’s knitting and potpourri. From this point Sightseers becomes a sort of mashup of road-trip comedies and criminal couples with a shared psychosis killing people that, essentially, annoy them. Mostly, posh types who think they are better than Chris and Tina…well, in Chris and Tina’s eyes anyway.

All of the violence, much like Kill List, is unyieldingly brutal but presented in such a blasé way that it seems that murder is an everyday occurrence on a caravan holiday (which maybe it is, I’ve never been on a caravan holiday). This juxtaposition – the dry humor with interjections of Chris’s grisly, almost primal murders are all executed deftly beginning with Oram and Lowe’s perfectly pitch-black script to the naturally realized characters and settings to Laurie Rose‘s comely cinematography. Every aspect of Sightseers is so professionally polished to the point that one forgets the lacking plot and unsubstantial storyline.

It’s just a ginger-bearded man and angry woman killing people on holiday, but damn is it enjoyable while it lasts….an enjoyable romp through the English countryside occasionally detouring, say, to tackle someone with a Volvo. Sightseers features great comedic performances from Oram and Lowe (even though one does tire of hearing “Chris?” and “Poppy” over and over), a great soundtrack, expertly timed and reserved use of slow-motion and picturesque framing of the English countryside…near the end of the film I thought I was watching Wuthering Heights but with middle-aged serial killers. If you like your comedies pitch black and slightly disturbing, then Sightseers is a must-see. Ben Wheatley has shown that he is, without a doubt, a formidable talent capable of mostly any genre. He will, however, work some face-smashing into the film; it’s his signature.