New review: The Brute
Women in nightgowns escaping the clutches of evil night time visitations! Ineffectual police! Car chases down country roads! Fights involving red-hot branding irons and open fires! Sexy encounters in haybarns! Funky 70s photo shoots!
If all this makes The Brute sound like just your cup of tea, archetypal British horror movie fan, be warned. Because although all this stuff is present and (in)correct here, archetypal British horror movie The Brute is not.
Domestic violence doesn’t often get chosen as a subject for entertainment. And let’s face it, there’s a good reason for that. But here it is – not lurking in the background as it so often does in film of a certain vintage (“quiet, woman!”) but driving the entire story.
Is it a horror film? I say yes (“quiet, woman!”). Is it a fun way to spend 90 minutes? Not really. Will you spend a good portion of your first viewing of the film being very distracted by trying to place why the actor playing Diane seems so familiar? Yes, if you’re me (I got it in the end – it was the hairdo that threw me).
