Steven Nesbit’s debut film is rather aptly named, as this low budget British film mixes elements of Psycho, Misery and assorted supernatural thrillers into an uneasy combination that is very much a mixed bag.

Set on the Yorkshire moors, the film opens with American Lauren (Jennifer Bryer) and her daughter Emily (Sydney Wade) – who it is quickly established is half-English, possibly to cover a wandering accent – as they visit a dilapidated farmhouse that they have inherited. While there, a neighbour visits and immediately starts casting the runes in a spot of fortune telling. This doesn’t end well, as the old lady is possessed by an evil spirit and promptly dies after spitting out an ominous warning. When a local policeman seems set to take both Lauren and Emily into custody, the woman assaults him and the pair flee.

The next thing we see is Lauren waking up in bed, a bullet in her shoulder and her ankle sprained, and being looked after by Len (Wayne Russell), a dishevelled, religiously obsessed and rather unstable farmer who hears his domineering mother talking to him in his head, and is not above nailing himself to a chair as punishment for bad thoughts. Things are clearly not going to end well…

Curio has plenty of potential, but it’s mostly unfulfilled. I’ll admit I groaned out loud as Len began arguing with ‘mother’ – over half an century after Psycho, it seemed hard to believe that someone would trot out that old cliché again. But to be fair, Nesbit does give the idea a bit of a twist – a Texas Chain Saw Massacre style twist that is equally unoriginal, it has to be said, but a twist nonetheless.
The introduction of supernatural elements into what would otherwise be a straight-forward psycho story sits uneasily too. When Emily is visited by a ghost boy (I’m not spoiling anything here – if you didn’t guess this immediately, you clearly haven’t seen many films), it not only fails to progress the plot at all, but also gives screen time to the worst child actor you will have ever seen (though he’s not the worst actor in the film, ironically – that goes to the extraordinarily wooden policeman). There is no reason at all for any of this material in the film.

Full marks must go to Wayne Russell, who tears it up as the demented Len, one minute shyly excited about his imaginary relationship with Lauren, the next full of fury and violence as she fails to live up to his moral expectations. He’s an arresting presence throughout the film, and any time that he is on screen, the film is much more interesting. Unfortunately, Bryer – either through bad acting, bad characterisation or a combination of both – is completely unconvincing as the hostage, who takes the fact that she’s living with a lunatic and hasn’t seen her daughter in days rather too calmly. Her character seems to be entirely emotionless – even during supposedly frantic moments, she barely registers that this is anything more than an inconvenience. The tension that the film needs is effectively dissipated by her apparent lack of concern.

Curio is, ultimately, a failure – though not an entirely uninteresting one. Russell’s character and layered performance manages to hold the viewer’s interest, and although in the end he can’t save the film, he certainly makes it less of an ordeal that it might have otherwise been.

DAVID FLINT

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