Ben Wheatley is one of the most exciting British filmmaker's around and he is back in the director's chair this week with his latest film High-Rise.
Down Terrace
High-Rise is his first feature film since A Field in England back in 2013 but Wheatley made his feature film directorial debut back in 2010 with Down Terrace.
As well as being in the director's chair for Down Terrace, Wheatley also teamed up with Robin Hill to pen the film's screenplay; Hill was also on the cast list and took on the role of Karl.
Down Terrace follows a crime family that's looking to uncover a police informant in their ranks as they threaten to take down their business.
As directorial debuts go, Down Terrace really is pretty good and helped establish Wheatley as a director who liked to bring a realism to his movies as well as interweave that with some wonderful black comedy - the latter we would really see a couple of years later with Sightseers.
Hard to believe that this movie was filmed in just eight days as it really is a terrific watch with some great actors giving some wonderful performances.
Down Terrace is a gangster movie but perhaps not as well know it, as Wheatley cleverly mixes in soap opera elements as well as some wonderful comedy. British gangster movies really are some of the best, Down Terrace as elements that are familiar to us, while Wheatley puts his own unique stamp on this genre.
Wheatley wonderfully balanced hilarious and horrific and delivered all of that on a relatively small budget. Of course, there are moments of dark and rather grim violence - which you expect from this genre - but the humour that he has weaved into the story does help to lighten some of the film's darkest moments.
While Robert Hill, Robin Hill, and David Schaal all deliver great performance, for me, it is Julia Deakin who truly shines as Maggie, who plays Karl's wife.
It is Deakin who really drives the family aspect of the story and, while she may not be as ruthless as her husband and son, she is determined to root out the informant and get her family - and the business - back on the track. It is a wonderful performance from Deakin from start to finish.
Down Terrace is a great start to Wheatley's directing career as he showed that he was not afraid to put his own stamp on this genre. However, Wheatley would go on to deliver more impressive movies over the coming years.
High-Rise is released 18th March.
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