I’m so flippin’ eager to see Ben Wheatley’s KILL LIST, you have no idea. The crime thriller/horror flick is on its way to the U.S. (doesn’t hit On Demand until JANUARY 4th) following a slew of positive notices from the festival circuit. The film is supposed to be a dark, nasty piece of work – and now Wheatley is doing a 180 with SIGHTSEERS,/b>, a romantic comedy about serial killers. Cute!
In an interview with Fangoria, the director explains his decision to make something completely different for his KILL LIST follow-up.
“SIGHTSEERS is warm and it’s like a love story, but it’s also a comedy, but they’re also serial killers and they’re on holiday. The main characters are played by two comedians called Steve Oram and Alice Lowe and there’s a lot of improvisation in the film and I didn’t write the script either. I’ve known Steve and Alice for years and I thought this would be a really good antidote to the misery of KILL LIST, to do something that was kind of light and silly. It’s turned out really dark and horrible [laughs], but it’s still pretty funny. We’re actually just watching it, and it fits with the other two movies. You can see the through line through DOWN TERRACE to KILL LIST to SIGHTSEERS, but it’s certainly not as evil as KILL LIST is. It’s a bit warmer.”
DOWN TERRACE, Wheatley’s first feature, is a sorta darkly funny, f*cked up relationship drama, so obviously the dude enjoys making ’em laugh as much as he does making ’em cringe.
SIGHTSEERS’ official synopsis: Chris (Steve Oram) wants to show Tina (Alice Lowe) his world and he wants to do it his way – on a journey through this sceptred isle in his beloved Abbey Oxford Caravan. Tina’s led a sheltered life and there are things that Chris needs her to see – the Crich Tramway Museum, the Ribblehead Viaduct, the Keswick Pencil Museum and the rolling countryside that separates these wonders in his life. But it doesn’t take long for the dream to fade. Litterbugs, noisy teenagers and pre-booked caravan sites, not to mention Tina’s meddling mother, soon conspire to shatter Chris’s dreams and send him, and anyone who rubs him up the wrong way, over a very jagged edge…
Wheatley plans on having SIGHTSEERS finished by January; the film will most likely hit the festival circuit soon after. Keep your eyes peeled here for more info!