"Sightseers" (2012) Directed by Ben Wheatley #sightseeing #horrorstories

Welcome to the first of five spoiler free reviews on the first six films in the career of British filmmaker Ben Wheatley and as much as you're aware that I'm keenly aware to keep spoilers to a bare minimum well, I almost nailed this perfectly.

Almost!

One slapstick slip of the tongue, but I hope I've made it amusing and the rest was too good to be deleted so here's my spoiler free take on an incredible film I can't recommend to you highly enough.

“I’ve never been a Muse before!”

Part funded and supported by both Film 4 and the National Lottery, Ben Wheatley’s third fantastic film is bookended by two differing version’s of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” and therein lies the first of many metaphors for this darker than dark triumph. Written by the film’s two stand out stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (with additional material from long time collaborator Amy Jump), the film depicts a love story that on the surface isn’t immediately apparent and is driven by instant carnal lust rather than a developing romance. Even 88 minutes later and following yet another Wheatley inspired cinematic denouement that crunches and takes the breath away in equal measure, their love affair fails to resonate fully but that’s to the film’s eternal credit as from beginning to end their love, their escape, journey and indeed their English caravanning holiday is tainted and fractious but in an incredibly endearing way.

Amidst the genteel rolling hills of the English countryside and World Heritage museums that we share with “Tina” (Alice Lowe) and “Chris” (Steve Oram) we encounter chaos at every turn as their unusual love affair takes many oblique turns for the surreal and bizarre, often juxtaposing a natural high and pleasing moment with a disturbingly dark counter point. As with his two previous films, Ben Wheatley has again blended light with dark brilliantly and from the very outset and very first scene it is quickly established that nothing, and absolutely nothing at that, is what it seems.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original spoiler free review of "Sightseers" I penned and published nearly a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 3rd December 2022 and which can now be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site via the link to my original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/sightseers-2012-d1f32b3420b2

This spoiler free review is also integral to volume 5 of my "essential film reviews collection". All 7 volumes are only currently available in e-book form and cost £4.99 per volume, however should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, you can read each and every volume for free:

Volume 5

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4N25YCW

All 7 Volumes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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