PUNCH - A Review

Set in a dreary seaside town in the south east of England, outside of the tourist season, young student Frankie (Alina Allison) returns home to visit her mother, who's been having a lot of emotional problems. Having told her, in no uncertain terms, that she will not be staying for any great length and plans on getting the train back to university the next day, she goes out that evening to visit her friend Holly (Faye Campbell).

Unfortunately, their night out on the town is marred by a maniac wearing a Mr Punch mask, who starts stalking them and proceeds to batter to death anyone who gets in his way, as he chases the girls round the town, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake.

But this is no ordinary serial killer, seems there's an ulterior motive as to why he has Frankie and her friends in his sights and they won't be able to count on help from the locals either...

This is Director Andy Edwards debut feature film and, from a technical viewpoint at least, I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the films obviously low budget we had actors who could actually act and there were some impressive visuals and some nice gore. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Horror B-movie actress Dani Thompson in a small role as a barmaid.

Unfortunately, when it came to the plot, I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed. It took quite a while to get going, was paced unevenly, had few likeable characters, apart from the female lead and the “twist” ending (which I won't spoil for you) just seemed rather silly in my view.

Probably the sort of film that would play better with a festival crowd, as opposed to watching at home on your laptop. But whether you will enjoy this will depend largely on your love of British Indie horrors. 

PUNCH is released to UK Digital outlets, 22nd January

View the Trailer on YouTube.