Film: Custom
Type: Demon
Country: UK
Writer / Director: Tiago Teixeira
Rating: 4.4 / 10
Jasper and Harriet have been creating adult content together for a while, deciding to up the ante by accepting custom requests through their website to fulfill whatever fetish or desires their audience are interested in.
When a mysterious bidder offers them £10,000 for a video, it’s a no brainer and they accept the deal immediately. The only stipulations are that they follow the methodical instructions to the letter, film on VHS and most importantly never, ever watch or share the tapes with anyone else. They mask up in an empty warehouse and start recording the video, but realise once shooting has wrapped that neither of the pair remember anything that they did together. The pairs health deteriorates with every new tape they make, until finally, curiosity gets the better of them and they watch the tapes back – finally understanding what they really enlisted themselves into as part of their custom transaction.
On paper, this sounds like an interesting concept – that has a lot of scope to be turned as depraved, intriguing or as shocking as limits allow, but the execution falls quite flat from the initial idea, and it’s hard not to be left wanting more once the credits roll. The majority of the film focuses on dreamlike sequences; long, drawn out and each similar to the last. It’s tastefully done, for example the slow shots of Harriet (Abigail Hardingham) naked and buried in VHS tape as Jasper (Rowan Polonski) digs through to try and pull her out. But these shots become a little tired, obvious and too overdone, with not enough storyline to revive the repetitive nature of film a tape, watch back, sickness and shock, repeat. Although only 76 minutes long, it loses attention quite early on and subsequently drags, with not enough explored after the initial 15 minutes to offer anything new or exciting to differentiate from anything that has already been outlined.
An interesting idea, that could benefit from a little more time to further flesh out the concept and add a bit more punch to the overall package to compliment the artsy visuals.
The incredible Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival is now in it’s 9th year – a brilliant festival for scary movie fans with a curated collection of some of the best independent horror features, shorts & web series. The screenings take place mainly at the wonderful Hen & Chickens Theatre in Highbury & Islington!
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