Protein

It’s not a unique idea to try to place a serial killer into a social context. Films as diverse and American Psycho and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer come at these issues albeit from polar opposites.

In Protein director Tony Burke and co-writer Mike Oughton have sought to provide some insight both for the Sion (Craig Russell) and the people he meets in the Welsh town that he wanders into.

An ex-soldier with PTS and who was bullied in the army, Sion now finds himself on drifting from town to town. He does however keep a freezer and to his fitness regime.

He joins a gym, paying the month’s membership with pennies. This leads the manager Katrina (Kezia Burrows) to offer him a job doing menial duties. The only others in the gym are local thugs employed by villain Joe (Richard Mylan) for various nefarious duties.

When one of the thugs doesn’t take well to being admonished by Katrina for his sexism, and threatens her, Sion deals with him, as well as his own nutritional needs. This causes a chain of events that sees the criminals set about themselves, with the violence steadily increasing.

Into this are two cops: the local Stanton (Charles Dale) and Patch (Andrea Hall) from London. Patch is there as she believes the murder is similar enough to two in London to suspect a serial killer. Stanton who knows the people and the area suspects a turf war.

All told there are a lot of named characters in Protein and Burke has done well to not make any look wasted. They are developed enough so that they are more than just death #1 or copper #2. That helps with Burke’s attempt to get a bring out social issues that affect people and provide an understanding of why they go in the directions they do.

Early in the film, Sion is walking through the town that has seen better days. As such the film has a dingy unpleasant air for its duration. That’s compounded by the killings which in one case is distressing. And not at all alleviated by the attempts at black humour with the bumbling gang or the hired assassin’s one-liners. All of this looks very clumsy and incongruous.

That said apart from it falling away a little towards the end, it all hangs together well with solid performances all round.

Protein will be is in selected cinemas 13 June and released on digital platforms on 14 July 2025.