With a friend coming back from Australia,I decided to look round for a movie that she would enjoy.Due to her being a Simon Pegg fan,I was happy to find that one of his lesser-known movies had turned up at a local DVD shop,which led to me getting ready to discover how fantastic this fear could be.

The plot:

Unable to sell his children's book, author Jack decides to move on to writing a book on Victorian serial killers (not much of a change there!) Delving into research,Jack starts to become obsessed by the history of the killers,and starts to become paranoid.Locking himself in his flat,Jack gets a call from his publisher,telling him that he must come out,due to their being a big shot producer who wants to adapt Jack's book. Failing to clean up,Jack accidentally super-glues a knife to his hand.Putting a big coat on to hide the knife,Jack steps out into the outside world,where he soon runs into a modern wannabe serial killer.

View on the film:

Changing chords from Brit Pop band Kula Shaker to the big screen, Crispian "son of Hayley" Mills and fellow co-director Chris Hopewell turn the pages in Jack's book with an ultra-stylised chic.Backed by pounding Hip-Hop songs and a creepy score from Michael Price,the directors and cinematographer Simon Chaudoir lock Jack in his flat with a vice-like grip,as lightning fast whip-pans and scatter shot zoom- ins uncover the terror that Jack fears has joined him in his flat.Opening with a matte painting, Mills & Hopewell show a bravely in taking the chilling mood into unexpectedly quirky routes,by bringing Jack's stories to life in hand-drawn and raw stop-motion animation.

Whilst the ending disappointingly leaves Jack's debut novel to end on a whimper,the screenplay by Crispian Mills thankfully spends the rest of the title pulling the blood red Comedy Horror nerves from Jack's paranoia.Opening up Jack's troubled life,Mills unveil all of the anxiety fuelling Jack's horror fears,which leads to bitter slap- stick laughs,as Jack faces his fears on the outside. Twitching across the screen,Simon Pegg gives a great performance as Jack,thanks to Pegg pushing Jack's eyes to bursting and shivering with terror over the smallest thing,as Jack faces his fantastic fear of everything.

Children's author Jack (Simon Pegg) is tired of his own writing and is attempting a crime novel. He grows paranoid and has even started carrying a knife.

This is an odd little British movie. It does have to decide what it wants to be. At first, it seems to be Kafkaesque paranoid surrealism. Then it turns into a cool wacky London street night out. Finally, it becomes a Pulp Fiction gimp incident. It's weird. It's a little interesting. It's just intriguing enough to keep my interest.

It's really great seeing Simon Pegg playing it as straight as possible, because it enhances the horror part of the movie. There still is comedy bits in there (the whole idea is kind of crazy to begin with),but it gets mixed well with those really great shocking moments throughout the movie.

An important character gets introduced very late in the movie, which can be viewed as a mistake or something bad, but even that sort of works for the movie. And it works because it is mainly a one man show. Heavy lifting that Mr. Pegg is able to do. The audio commentary on the disc of course showcases his sense of humor again. Not only for his fans, but for everyone who likes quirky and weird movies.