Help

Grace (Emily Redpath) after splitting from her partner decides to pay a visit to her long-time friend Liv (Sarah Alexandra Marks) and her fiancé Ed (Louis James) at their luxurious house in the country. Its Ed’s birthday and they appear relaxed having are happily engaged though there are little signs that things going on beneath the surface.

The pair get a little prickly during conversation and Ed alludes to mental health issues when he talks to his boss. This isn’t passing Grace by and her suspicions are raised when she finds blood on the corner of table and on Liv’s garments. Piecing things together Grace comes to conclusions, though she’s not clean as whistle herself.

The film has a luxurious appearance that belies the obvious low budget with writer and director Blake Ridder using the widescreen ratio to full effect whether on the reflective conversational segments or when things hot up towards the end.

He’s also very generous to the actors giving them plenty of space to work the script. It is at times however too open with the pace resulting in a languidness that saps some of the momentum leaving it in the doldrums at times.

For all the tension built-up, there is an element of predictability about it, which can be brushed off as there’s some solid work on the part of the actors as the viewer is confronted with the effects of physical and mental abuse. That is somewhat undone with the plot overtwisting towards the end.

Nevertheless considering that Help was made in twelve days, under Covid restrictions, with the crew and cast basically kept to one location, this an impressive feature debut from Blake Ridder.

Help is available for digital download from 15 February.