Darkside Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has set Jan. 19 as the street date for the Blu-ray edition of English filmmaker David Gilbank’s mixed genre Polterheist — horror tale, crime thriller and comedy worked together into a winning combination.
Back in 2016, Gilbank hit upon the idea of making a short film based on a story that he thought might, just might, be worked into a feature-length film. He also thought that he could use the short version of Polterheist as a tool to attract some financial backing for the feature-length version.
The financial-backing part of the plan, according to Gilbank, didn’t work out as planned, but to his surprise, his short film, when entered into competition at various festivals, began to win awards and generate buzz. So, with the backbone of a story and the encouragement of the marketplace, he set about to make a feature-length edition of Polterheist.
Of the original short-film cast, only Sid Akbar Ali as Tarig was to reprise his role. He plays a small-time hood, and together with his buddy, Boxy (Jamie Cymbal), they have a falling out with their boss, Frank, and kill him. Hey, they are gangsters, thugs … that’s what criminals do, they kill people.
There is just one problem with what they’ve done. It seems that Frank has skimmed cash from the big boss, Uday (Pushpinder Chani), and he’d like to have it back. Which means that Tarig and Boxy have, oh let’s say 72 hours, to retrieve it or Frank is going have company.
Tarig and Boxy are not what you would call bright lights, so after going through the motions of trying to figure out what Frank might have been up to, they hit upon the scheme of kidnapping a police- psychic by the name of Alice (Jo Mousley). She had been in the news for helping solve a kiddie-porn murder, so clearly, she could help them find out with what Frank did with Uday’s cash.
About this point you have to ask yourself, is there anything that Boxy and Tarig have done that seems to indicate that this is going to work? This is where Gilbank has fun with the typical British gangster film (think: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Get Carter, The Long Good Friday, etc.) and introduces the “Poltergeist” aspects of the Polter/Heist storyline. Alice does have access to the beyond … it is just not the “beyond” that our boys Tarig and Boxy had in mind.
Polterheist is a fun mix between crime thriller and horror/comedy, with newcomer Jo Mousley as Alice delivering the fun, especially when she “channels” the dead Frank. Mark it down, Darkside Releasing’s Polterheist on Blu-ray in the New Year … Jan. 19.
No comments:
Post a Comment