DIRECTOR D. Kerry Prior WRITER D. Kerry Prior STARS David Anders; Chris Wylde; Louise Griffiths DVD & BLU-RAY 2 April
Opening in Basra, Iraq, one could be forgiven for at first assuming a serious film; there is nothing much fun about a US army truck crashing into a young child, after all. The jaunty strings to then signal the funeral of a dead soldier quickly put paid to that theory, and, should soundtrack not be your strong point, a sermon that enthuses of the consequences of a lack of Christian worship ought to make this clear: The Revenant is a very silly film, likely to amuse.
And amuse, this festival favourite does. Bart (David Anders) rises from the grave to knock on the door of his best friend, Joey (Chris Wylde), as the pair, reunited, embark on general tomfoolery, via punchy dialogue and some very good on-screen rapport. The majority of director/writer D. Kerry Prior’s limited experience lies within SFX, but you would not know it from what is at times perfect comedy timing. Utterly ridiculous. But so much fun.
The only real criticism here is that the titular revenant’s scenes with his girlfriend are all far too long; relationship politics halt and do not complement the pace, actress Louise Griffiths not exactly setting the screen alight. Also, there are some visually stylish moments that do feel wasted in a film of this ilk. These however are only slight gripes, The Revenant a very welcome addition to the comedy horror stable.
