🔗 Share this article Game Review: Band Frontman Jason Williamson Assumes Character in Sceptical Look at 90s Rave Culture Helmed by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous though slight first film turns a sceptical eye on 90s rave culture. Self-serving drug user David (Marc Bessant) initially steals from an passed-out supplier, then in a later recollection tries to burgle his own parents. In no time, he's overturned in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (vocalist Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for townies, he is a fractured society embodied: “You’re one of those loud individuals from up on the heath.” Unsteady Opening and Darkly Funny Duel The film begins uncertainly, lingering excessively on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to extricate himself from his seatbelt, while awkwardly transitioning into flashbacks of his normal activities. The central theme – that the ecstasy generation were mainly focused on number one – is firmly made. But these brief episodes are insufficiently developed to properly prime us for what to expect when the Woodsman turns up, enraged after David kills his dog. Still, a grimly amusing duel takes hold – David eager to get away; the Woodsman withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, determined to soaking him instead in resentful talk. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is evocative of Michael Smiley. Stylish Imagery and Promo-Inspired Sensibility Just a single important plot development, but it leads to a hilariously staged chaotic run on the woodland paths that dips close to folk horror. Director John Minton finally gets to go all in with his ostentatious visuals: where he was focused intently doing artful shots of bugs in headlights in the early stages, he now goes all out with the full lysergic 21-gun salute, accompanied by a frenzied keyboard rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Game feels more like an elongated music video than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings and others into successfully graduating from the UK video industry. Game releases in UK and Irish theaters from November 17.