Little Deaths (film)

Little Deaths
Directed by Sean Hogan
Andrew Parkinson
Simon Rumley
Produced by Sean Hogan
Andrew Parkinson
Samantha Wright
Written by Sean Hogan
Andrew Parkinson
Simon Rumley
Music by Richard Chester
Andrew Parkinson
Cinematography Milton Kam
Edited by Robert Hall
Jennifer Sheridan
Production
company
Almost Midnight Productions
Distributed by Imagination Worldwide
Image Entertainment (United States)
Release dates
  • 25 February 2011 (Film4 FrightFest)
Running time
 94 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Little Deaths is a 2011 British anthology horror film written and directed by Sean Hogan, Andrew Parkinson, and Simon Rumley. The film has three segments: House & Home, Mutant Tool, and Bitch. Each segment is directed by a different author and are unrelated to one another in any way other than sharing a theme of sex and death.[1] Critical reviews for Little Deaths were polarized and the United Kingdom DVD release had to have some portions removed due to their sexually violent content.[2][3]

Synopsis

House and Home

In Sean Hogan's segment, Richard (Luke de Lacey) and Victoria (Siubhan Harrison) are a married couple that tries to solve their boredom by picking up homeless women under the guise of a Christian charity, with the intent to abuse them sexually. When they pick up Sorrow (Holly Lucas), they soon discover that they have taken on more than they can handle and that Sorrow is not exactly the homeless woman that she seems to be.

Mutant Tool

The second segment was directed by Andrew Parkinson and follows Jen (Jodie Jameson), a prostitute that gains the ability to see frightening visions whenever she touches someone. She is also addicted to the emissions of the captive Mutant (Rob 'Sluggo' Boyce). His captor, Dr. Reese (Brendan Gregory), has been feeding him human kidneys as part of a twisted Nazi experiment.

Bitch

Simon Rumley's short focuses on the dysfunctional relationship between Pete (Tom Sawyer) and Claire (Kate Braithwaite). Claire routinely subjects Pete to emotional and physical abuse and, in the bedroom, makes him participate in various BDSM activities such as forcing him to live and behave as a dog while he gets pegged. Pete longs for his relationship with Claire to get better and for her to give him more respect and acceptance, but is pushed to his limit when Claire decides to sleep with his best friend Al (Tommy Carey).

Development

Hogan began planning the film anthology after a prior film project did not come to fruition.[4] He approached Parkinson and Rumley with the idea, as Hogan believed that the differences in their filmmaking styles would work well in an anthology setting.[4] The three collaborated on the film as a whole in the pre-production stages, but "kind of went [their] separate ways" after production began.[4]

Hogan has stated that he and Rumley initially had difficulty casting the roles for their segments House & Home and Bitch, as many actors declined to participate after reading the scripts.[5]

Cast

House & Home

  • Luke de Lacey as Richard Gull
  • Holly Lucas as Sorrow
  • Siubhan Harrison as Victoria Gull
  • James Oliver Wheatley as Sorrow's Companion
  • Marc Bennett as Homeless
  • Jennifer Handorf as Homeless
  • Nick Harwood as Homeless
  • Mike Hewitt as Homeless
  • James Hinson as Homeless
  • Eddie Hogan as Homeless
  • Kimberly Howson as Homeless
  • Paul Goodwin as Homeless
  • Andrew Parkinson as Homeless
  • Fiona Watt as Homeless
  • Danielle White as Homeless

Mutant Tool

  • Jodie Jameson as Jen
  • Daniel Brocklebank as Frank
  • Brendan Gregory as Dr. Reese
  • Christopher Fairbank as X
  • Rob 'Sluggo' Boyce as Mutant
  • Mike Anfield as Michael
  • Scott Ainslie as Middle Aged John
  • Steel Wallis as Drew
  • James Anniballi as Hoodie
  • Errol Clarke as Frank's Accomplice
  • Oliver Guy-Watkins as Dealer's Client

Bitch

  • Tom Sawyer as Pete
  • Kate Braithwaite as Claire
  • Tommy Carey as Al
  • Amy-Joyce Hastings as Lucy

Reception

Critical reception has been mixed to positive.[6][7] Shock Till You Drop and FEARnet both gave predominantly positive reviews, with Shock Till You Drop commenting that "as a whole, Little Deaths is ultimately one of the best horror anthologies I've ever seen, not the least of which because it ignores the pretense of a framing device in favor of ideas that bind its segments more tightly together than a wraparound story ever could".[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ Rowan Legg, Shelagh M. "Now on DVD: Little Deaths Revels in Sex And, Well, Death". Twitch Film. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "Little Deaths (UK DVD)". Dread Central. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Raffel, Lawrence P. "Interview: Explore The Psycho-Sexual Horror of 'Little Deaths'". FearNet. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Martin, Peter. "SXSW 2011: Sean Hogan and Simon Rumley Talk LITTLE DEATHS". Twitch Film. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Gilchrist, Todd (March 18, 2011). "Sean Hogan and Simon Rumley Make Big Waves With ‘Little Deaths'". WSJ. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Little Deaths". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Martin, Peter. "SXSW 2011: LITTLE DEATHS Review". Twitch Film. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Gilchrist, Todd. "Little Deaths (review)". Shock Till You Drop. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  9. ↑ Weinerg, Scott. "FEARnet Movie Review - Little Deaths". FEARnet. Retrieved 9 October 2013.

External links