The Acid House (film)
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| The Acid House | |
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| Directed by | Paul McGuigan |
| Written by | Irvine Welsh |
| Release date(s) | 1998 |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Acid House is a film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's short story collection The Acid House. Welsh himself wrote the screenplay, and appears as a minor character in the film.
[edit] Plot
The 1998 film, directed by Paul McGuigan, dramatises three stories from the book:
- The Granton Star Cause is a comedy, where Bob is having a very bad day indeed. His parents throw him out so they can indulge in sado-masochism and he is sacked from his job, dumped by his girlfriend and dropped from his football team. It has elements of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, as a pitiless God who transforms him into a fly as punishment for wasting his life.
- A Soft Touch: Kevin McKidd plays a cuckolded husband while Gary McCormack is Larry, the ruthless upstairs neighbour who steals his electricity and his wife, played by Michelle Gomez.
- The Acid House: An acid trip and a bolt of lightning result in amiable schemie Coco Brice exchanging places with the baby of a middle class couple.
All three sections are independent, but are linked by setting and by the reappearance of incidental characters, in particular Maurice Roëves who appears variously as an inebriated wedding guest, a figure in a dream, and a pub patron. All three of his parts symbolize a human manifestation of God.
The film offended elements of the UK tabloid press with a depiction of a cynical and jaded, foul-mouthed God, and in some countries (such as Canada and the United States) has been shown on television with subtitles because of most characters' heavy Scottish accents.
