With a premise that suggests an early 21st century variation on David Fincher's paranoia classic The Game (1997), New Town Killers stars Dougray Scott as Alistair, a slimy, ice water-veined financier who gets his kicks and thrills by targeting human prey. His modus operandi involves bringing in an innocent young candidate for a new job, Jamie Stewart (Alastair Mackenzie), and demanding as a prerequisite that the two play a mysterious game together. They must find a down-and-outer and challenge
him to escape from their clutches over the course of one long and fateful night. The "prey" on this occasion is Sean McDonald (James Anthony Pearson), an inner-city teen with a serious problem on his hands: his pregnant sister risks being killed by the thugs to whom she owes gambling money. Alistair informs the young man that if he manages to evade them in their chase, he will receive enough money to clear off the towering gambling debts of his pregnant sister; if he loses, he will be killed. Out of concern for his sister, Sean agrees to the contest, though victory seems impossible for two major reasons: first, the crafty Alistair has closed all major exit routes from the city without informing Sean of this, and second, Alistair secretly plants a tracking device on Sean that the young man isn't aware of. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
It is tightly constructed and successfully portrays the underlying tension between Edinburgh's newly prosperous and those who never had anything and never will.
Given that it's basically one big chase, there's something awfully snoozy about this latest from Richard Jobson - a sort of cut-price, Scottish-set Hostel (a mountain bothy, maybe?).
Tension and mystery are both constants throughout this very decent indie movie, which could have easily become a cult classic in future years if Sean's two pursuers were better handled by the script.
Racing from lawless tenement to loveless townhouse, it's grittier and gutsier than the cut-price Running Man clone it threatens to become, a spiky little speedball of caustic social commentary and guerrilla thrills.
So depressing, life-sapping and unrelentingly nihilistic, words have yet to be invented to convey the sheer awfulness of this so-called thriller. A contender for worst film of 2009.
The gloomy back streets and alleyways of Edinburgh are the perfect setting for this heart-in-mouth thriller. The plot is frantic and taut and keeps you gripped until the final credits.
Brutal and contrived, this Scottish thriller just makes too little sense to hold our attention. It may be filmed with a lot of style, but it's also pretentious, full of cliches and nearly deafening.
A pretty decent low budget Scottish film. The idea is similar to Hard target, but minus the martial arts and this time given an urban setting. Two young rich men hunt down the lower classes desperate for money in a game of hide and seek. The plot can be a bit odd at times but it's a entertaining watch.
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