Freeview (UK) films of the day : Saturday 15th of June

Skeletons (2010 93min.) [BBC2 11.40pm]
Freeview premiere

Comedy starring Andrew Buckley, Ed Gaughan and Jason Isaacs. Davis and Bennett are employed by the Veridical company to remove the psychic detritus that clogs up people's lives - a process that involves entering their clients' closets. However, when the pair are ordered to the house of a woman whose husband disappeared years ago, they embark upon a case that challenges all their working methods.

It's the sort of small scale, quirky comedy that Britain should be producing more often : there's some lovely character development and some touching scenes in among the laughs and giggles.

There's nice attention to detail - the exorcists constant need to ensure that all their paperwork is up to date, for example - and the entire film has a genial, warm feeling to it, even when dealing with subjects of the utmost seriousness for the characters.

Thoroughly enjoyable and a fine example of the small budget film made to work by the vision and skill of the writer/director. Well worth the effort.


Devil (2010 76min.) [Film4 9.00pm &+1]
Freeview premiere

Five office workers become trapped when a lift breaks down. As a cop and a security guard try to free them, it becomes clear they are in far greater danger. One of the group is the Devil himself, who has assumed human form to harvest the souls of sinners - but nobody can tell who he is. Horror, starring Chris Messina, Bokeem Woodbine and Caroline Dhavernas.

Based on a story by M Night Shyamalan, and planned as the first movie in the proposed Night Chronicles trilogy - supernatural stories set in the modern urban world.

It's a slight (and rather obvious) idea but it works because of the skill of the screenwriter Brian Nelson, the director John Erick Dowdle and his cinematographer Tak Fujimoto.
The decision to make the film as that modern rarity, a horror film that relies on atmosphere rather than gore, pays off and although the 'mystery' is nothing more than a red herring it's a well delivered, breezy little piece that makes very good use of its confined setting.