NEFARIOUS (2019): FILM REVIEW

Darren, Lou, Jo and Mas are a group of friends and flatmates who live in squalor and engage in petty crime to bolster their meagre incomes. Darren works in a warehouse, where one of his colleagues is “the retard,” Clive. Jo is a domestic cleaner. Our protagonists somehow find themselves in debt to a local hard man and need to raise funds quickly to pacify him. Handily, one of Jo’s jobs is at the home of a wealthy man called Marcus. One day, Jo finds out that Marcus is the brother of “retard” Clive, who happens to live with him. She also finds out the combination to Marcus’ safe….The friends decide that this is too good an opportunity to turn down and plan to burgle the house whilst Marcus is out. Before they put their plan into action, Darren breaks into Clive’s locker at work and discovers newspaper clippings and what seems to be a kidnap kit, including a bloody knife. What could possibly go wrong?


Nefarious is a low budget, independent British film and is the second feature length effort of writer/director Richard Rowntree (Dogged). It has that particular grimy, kitchen sink atmosphere of the low budget British horror movie (think the work of Andrew Parkinson - Dead Creatures, I Zombie). This is no bad thing, given the subject matter, and lends itself to the overall sleaziness of proceedings. The design of the movie is pretty good; the flatshare is an authentically grim address, without being over the top and, whilst I was initially scratching my head at why the police interviews were carried out in complete darkness and with spotlights, I’m inclined to suspect that this was actually an ingenious way of overcoming the lack of a credible set/location - necessity is the mother of invention. Towards the denouement, Nefarious reveals a fairly mean spirit and there are some decent gore effects and an interesting “accidental” death for one of the would-be burglars.


Overall, the acting performances are decent, which is helped by steady dialogue from Rowntree and fellow writer, Matthew Davies. Often, “gritty” scripts can descend into unintentional self-parody, seemingly having been written by people who have never met a member of the working class, let alone a criminal, but Davies and Rowntree keep things on the right side of respectable. Gregory Smith pulls the short straw of having the difficult job of bringing Clive to life. From the way he is portrayed, it would seem that Clive suffers with some kind of global developmental delay. As the parent of a child with a chromosomal abnormality, which has similar symptoms, I found Smith’s performance overly childlike, emotional and a bit hammy. However, it does not stray into offensive territory and, if you do not have experience of these matters, I presume it won’t affect your enjoyment of the film. Toby Wynn-Davies, gives a show stealing turn as Clive’s brother, Marcus, presenting convincingly a man on the edge of losing control.


Overall, Nefarious is definitely worth a watch. It’s enjoyable and fun. And if you’re a fan of twists, it contains an incongruous about face to rival Ben Wheatley’s Kill List.

the heart and soul of horror movie reviews