FLY TRAP *** U.S.A. 2015 Dir: Stephen David Brooks 81 mins
This Thriller/Sci Fi/Dark Comedy is a gem of a movie! Since it hit the festivals it has won and been nominated for various awards and, it would seem rightly so. It is low budget and contains only the slightest hint of SPFX for it is not about action scenes or brutal murder but more psychological, feeding on paranoia, sense of reality and, to an extent, Stockholm syndrome. James Pond (Jeremy Crutchley) is an English Astronomer who is on his way to start his new job at UCLA. His car breaks down outside a small, quaint, seemingly normal suburban house. Knocking on the door he is greeted by Mary Ann (Ina-Alice Kopp) who invites him in to use the phone but all is not as it seems.
Despite her odd behaviour and very forward approach he ends up sleeping with her before realising he is now a captive inside the house, basically being used to reproduce. He and Mary Ann are not the only ones in the house, Jimmy learns that Mary Ann has others to answer to, intriguingly named Gilligan and The Skipper this is where Jimmy really starts to question just who or what these things really are. This is very dialogue heavy and really builds around the crazy full on relationship of Jimmy and Mary Ann and the bond formed in just a short space of time. It is by no means boring at all, the humour is well placed and effective; don’t expect a laugh a minute it happens quite subtly. Jeremy Crutchley (Black Sails) is fantastic throughout and does not falter at all, in my opinion, he carries the movie from the prologue right through to the dodgy dancing and desperate attempts to escape. Ina-Alice Kopp is good as the quirky yet alluring Mary Ann but tails off a bit at the end and Jonah Blechman plays Gilligan with an odd and eerie habit of whistling to make things really quite awkward. It ends differently to how I had expected, to allow for the final monologue. The script, direction and camera work is great as it is pretty much filmed entirely in the house and primarily in the bedroom, it all flows well. The music is sparse but also effective. Given that this is not normally my kind of film I would definitely recommend it and could quite happily watch it all over again.
Review by Sarah Budd