Vaughn (Jack Lowden) will soon be married, there's a baby on the way, and an old pal is dragging him off to the Highlands for a few days of hunting. Marcus (Martin McCann) is the hunter, a smooth city boy with a bit of a coke habit. They set off from Glasgow to recapture old times, have a few drinks and maybe bag a deer or two. What could possibly go wrong?
A night drinking with some of the locals (many of whom show a low level of tolerance towards the incomers) they set off into the forest in search of their quarry. But when Vaughn accidentally kills a child who's wandered into his line of fire things get out of hand very quickly. Marcus takes the lead in covering up the events, but in such a small community suspicions are hard to suppress. Very soon the would be hunters find themselves cast as prey, and Vaughn will be forced into making the hardest decision of his life...
It's a common enough theme - how would we react if we were accidentally responsible for the death of another human being? While the plot is very much conventional thriller, with (first time) director Matt Palmer (and an excellent editor) steadily raising the tension levels not once, but twice, the psychological elements are played out in the features of McCann and, most impressively, Lowden. Meanwhile the locals present us with a mix of logic, anger and raw emotion that determine the fate of their big city visitors. If there's a flaw it's in the suggestion that a twenty first century Highland community could be a bunch of hicks from Deliverance, but it certainly works in terms of driving a scintillating plot.
The lasting impression is of Lowden in the closing shot, a wordless picture of what one weekend away has done to his psyche. An excellent and very Scottish movie.
It's a common enough theme - how would we react if we were accidentally responsible for the death of another human being? While the plot is very much conventional thriller, with (first time) director Matt Palmer (and an excellent editor) steadily raising the tension levels not once, but twice, the psychological elements are played out in the features of McCann and, most impressively, Lowden. Meanwhile the locals present us with a mix of logic, anger and raw emotion that determine the fate of their big city visitors. If there's a flaw it's in the suggestion that a twenty first century Highland community could be a bunch of hicks from Deliverance, but it certainly works in terms of driving a scintillating plot.
The lasting impression is of Lowden in the closing shot, a wordless picture of what one weekend away has done to his psyche. An excellent and very Scottish movie.
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