Tony: London Serial Killer

Horror

Britain

Eagle Entertainment

R4 DVD

A sympathetic serial killer? That’s the reaction I had to this offbeat little horror film. Most of its power is due simply to Peter Ferdinando’s emotionless depiction of the socially challenged Tony with his bad haircut and straggly moustache. He fits well into the grimy, rundown and crime-infested West End of London.

Tony has trouble relating to people. He has been on the dole for twenty years and has never held down a job. His reclusive life in a bleak council flat is only broken by the occasional trip to buy food or the latest violent videotape or porn magazine. He can’t even afford prostitutes. It soon becomes obvious that Tony is, despite his handicap, a desperately lonely man. His one attempt at getting a job, at the urging of the Welfare man assigned to his case, lasts for a day. He has no friends or acquaintances

One day he decides to try drugs. A couple of local street hoodlums arrange a supply then invite themselves to his flat where they drink his beer and use his dope. Tony smothers one with a plastic bag while the two are passed out. The other escapes. Tony keeps the body of the dead man in his flat for a bit of company but soon the corpse starts to smell. For a while he can blame it on the drains that need fixing, but eventually he has to cut up the body and dispose of the parts. He does this so efficiently and unemotionally that we must now wonder if he has done it before, inspired perhaps by the violent movies he watches.

A gay prostitute, the man who checks the TV licenses – everyone who causes friction in his life is a potential victim. The body count mounts and Tony is now suspected of the kidnapping of a ten year old boy. The boy’s father suspects Tony because he is a weirdo and Tony was staring at him in the pub. Since he was arguing loudly with his wife at the time this is not surprising, but in his redneck way he took offence at Tony’s interest.

Can Tony’s life continue this way? The film leaves us hanging at the end. It is a budget film, but I wish they had a bit more money to continue to a conclusion. Maybe the undecided ending is deliberate, to keep us wondering and use our imaginations to fill in the final scenes. With luck there may be a sequel in the offing.

This is not a horror film in the traditional genre. It is a film, first about lonely people, then about mental instability. There is no character development simply because Tony just doesn’t seem to have one. The film is one of those rare ones that, despite the subject, just COULD happen. It offers no solutions to loneliness but is streets ahead of the traditional hack and slash film so common in this genre. A thoughtful horror film? It works, and works well. It is definitely worth viewing.

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