DVD Review: Knife Edge
Knife Edge (2008)
Studio: Scanbox Entertainment
DVD Release Date: October 19 2009
Directed by: Anthony Hickox
Starring: Natalie Press, Hugh Bonneville, Mathieu Boujenah, Tamsin Egerton, Joan Plowright
Review by: Ben Bussey
Emma (Press) is a young English woman born into wealth but grown to become a success in her own right on Wall Street, thanks in no small part to what seems to be natural psychic ability. Putting her career on hold, she returns to the UK with her son and her new husband Henri (Boujenah), who unbeknownst to her has already procured them a lavish country manor house, and soon she’s wining and dining with all her old chums again. But – wouldn’t you know it – all is not quite what it seems. Not only is her charming and trustworthy husband keeping secrets from her, but there also seems to be something very strange about the house; some dark secret of the past contained within its walls.
But let me assure you, by the time this secret is revealed you will have long since stopped being the least bit interested. From the title and the setup, Knife Edge may be aiming for Hitchcockian thrills with a dash of haunted house malarkey on the side, but this movie will not have you on the edge of your seat so much as sinking into your seat fighting the tide of slumber.
It’s not tense, it’s not gripping, it’s just terminally bland. Sure, everyone involved seems to be putting forward the requisite effort, but nothing more than that. The cast are largely seasoned British professionals, not least Plowright and Bonneville, turning in upper class English stereotype performances the likes of which they could do in their sleep. The younger actors don’t fare so well; while Natalie Press seems to be making every effort she’s never a remotely compelling lead. Likewise, the sets and cinematography are all very nice and well done in a simple, clean, aesthetically pleasing BBC Sunday evening murder mystery kind of way. There’s nothing about it that’s remotely challenging, not even the occasional brief moments of graphic bloodshed and supernatural chicanery that are about the only thing to set Knife Edge apart from a bog-standard episode of Miss Marple or Poirot.
So why the hell are you reading about such a film at Brutal As Hell, I hear you cry? Well, believe it or not this is the work of Anthony Hickox, the director behind the Waxwork movies, Sundown and Hellraiser 3. And how strange it is to see the man behind such lurid and cartoonish horror movies to be now turning in something so pedestrian; sure, he was never exactly a ‘great’ director, but his movies were at least of passing interest. Not so here. Maybe he’s mellowing with age, maybe he’s just taking the work that’s available to him, who can say. All that can be said with any certainty is that fans of Hickox’s earlier work are not going to be in any way drawn to this movie, nor is it at all likely to win him any new admirers. There’s simply nothing of any interest in Knife Edge, so I strongly advise everyone to steer well clear of this tedious waste of time.
Brutal As Hell rating: 1 out of 5
