Shadows on the Wall | School's Out Forever

School’s Out Forever

dir-scr Oliver Milburn
prd Emma Biggins
with Oscar Kennedy, Liam Lau Fernandez, Alex Macqueen, Samantha Bond, Jasmine Blackborow, Anthony Head, Steve Oram, Sebastian Croft, Ben Dilloway, Freya Parks, Jayden Elijah, Max Raphael
release UK 15.Feb.21,
US 18.Jun.21
21/UK 1h45

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Mixing action and drama, this British thriller holds the attention by initially defying expectations, then taking surprising turns later on. While there's a blackly humorous edge, the film is also startlingly bleak and violent as it taps into the ugly side of humanity. It may even get too nasty as it builds to its climax, but filmmaker Oliver Milburn subverts genre rules for something that's unusually thoughtful and haunting.

After a silly prank at his posh boys' school, 15-year-old Lee (Kennedy) takes the fall for his star-pupil best pal Mac (Fernandez) and is expelled. Then a deadly pandemic sweeps through Britain. Lee is immune due to his blood type and, as things go from bad to worse, he takes shelter in his school with a group of students led by Mr Bates (Macqueen) and Matron (Blackborow). But supplies are running low, and there's a growing threat from a group of survivors outside the gates, led by the nearby town's self-proclaimed mayor Georgina (Bond).

The film follows Lee and Mac as they travel around gathering supplies and having scary adventures as they encounter a variety of people. The central conflict centres on Georgia's daughter Claire (Parks), who becomes a pawn in the standoff. Each character reacts differently in this situation, and the script cleverly contrasts Lee's willingness to help anyone with Mac's rather terrifying ability to kill anyone who's a threat. It's Mac who pushes for a military response to the outsiders, training up his own army.

The actors are solid, grounding their characters in realistic conversations and reactions, even as the story becomes increasingly fraught. There are vague hints of Lord of the Flies in the tussle between leaders Lee and Mac. At the centre of the narrative, Kennedy is engaging as the person the audience should identify with, although action movie fans may prefer the charismatic Fernandez, whose earnestness would make his penchant for violence feel eerily righteous if he weren't also so relentlessly cruel.

While it makes a point, this imbalance between Lee's and Mac's approaches muddles the movie's ultimate message. There are hints of other pungent themes, as characters re-define morality in the absence of the usual rules. Lee chooses to rely on his moral compass, so he can't understand this. And through his eyes it's properly chilling to see his classmates take some truly horrific decisions. This makes it somewhat obvious what will need to happen, and indeed the ending is rather smug. But Milburn's fresh voice makes the film worth a look.

themes, language, violence 9.Jun.21

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