Living and the Dead, The

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Don´t let the back cover copy fool you: "The Living and the Dead" is not the typical horror film. The film, the fourth by British director Simon Rumley, uses nearly clichéd conventions of the genre, though, to craft a picture in which we sit on the edge of our seats, waiting for what we think will happen to happen. Instead, the story takes a decidedly left turn away from our expectations to engage us in a wholly thrilling direction we never see coming.

In a ill-maintained manor house in Britain, the Brocklebank family is down to its last penny. Father Donald (Roger Lloyd-Pack) is the only functioning member of the household, while his only son James (a superb Leo Bill)-mentally handicapped with a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder and autism-and his terminally ill wife Nancy (Kate Fahy) are helpless as their belongings have been sold to stave off bankruptcy. When Donald leaves on a trip in hopes of securing funding, James takes it upon himself to care for Nancy, locking the doors to keep the nurse out while he becomes the man of the house. But, as Donald tries to reason with him, if James is watching over Nancy, who will watch over him?

Initially, I was angry with the broken social contract I felt Rumley had made with me. After all, "The Living and the Dead" contains all the hallmarks of a conventional psychological horror film: nightmare sequences, dizzying filming techniques, a calculated visual style, multiple time frames and, most importantly, a setting which screams isolation, desperation and, perhaps, uneasiness, to say the least. We cringe when James is late bringing breakfast to his mother only to learn she has defecated in bed. However, a moment later, as he helps her to the bathroom and then into the bathtub, we allow ourselves to think the outcome may not be so bad. Maybe, just maybe, the horror here is these three people watching their home fall apart around them.

Then something snaps in James, prompting him to lock his mother in her room. Forcing pills down her throat and finally dragging her throughout the mansion, we realize the thriller aspect of the film is two fold: the aforementioned destitution around the family, but also each person´s inability to be what they want to be. Donald is the last in a long time of aristocrats while Nancy has always taken care of James. And all James really wants is to be treated as a person. (We are told early in the film James is looked down upon by nearly everyone; thus, he does not answer the door or the phone.) But in those moments after Nancy is forced to take more medication than prescribed-based on the logic more medicine will make her get better faster-we fear the worst. There is no overt indication James is going to hurt his mother in any intentional way; rather, Rumley allows us to do the work and imagine the worst James could do to Nancy.

It is precisely this perceived terror which carries the first half of "The Living and the Dead." We constantly wait for something to happen in the plot worthy of our worst fears. That ubiquitous event never comes. In its place is a fleshing out of the story involving a series of flashbacks, flashforwards and nightmare sequences. Rumley claims there is only the present, flashbacks and flash-flashbacks, with each "color coded" differently. The flash-flashbacks, as he calls them, are warm and deeply "constrasty," conveying a sense of family. The future is covered in blue, suggesting isolation, loneliness and sadness-a cliché, though effective, choice based on the material presented. And the last time period, what can be argued as the present, is grimy and dingy. All obvious ways to reinforce the underlying emotions, but effective.

I am loathe to bring up the nightmare time period because, quite frankly, I don´t completely understand it. What is the man with dreadlocks supposed to represent? Death, possibly? In a film grounded in a version of reality, even the rationalization this is a nightmare-a representation in James´ mind-doesn´t make a whole lot of sense. It´s one aspect to the story I wish Rumley would have clarified just a bit more. Otherwise, this is a tight, engaging plot.

Special mention has to be made of the cast, specifically Leo Bill. Not only is he being asked to carry the movie from an action standpoint, the character of James is also the emotional center of the film. The way he treats his mother could be seen as hurtful if there was not an underlying charm Bill brings to James. We never truly believe he wants to hurt anyone, even in the finale. He has been put into a situation where people have catered to him his entire life because of his disability. There hasn´t been a compelling reason for James to be anything besides a child. It´s a tour de force role for Bill, one to hang his hat on.

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