Sightseers Reviews

After the dark crime thriller "Kill List" in 2011, writer/director Ben Wheatley has decided on a slightly lighter approach for his follow-up. Just 'slightly' mind you, as the premise of this tale is equally as dark and deranged. However, it does contain a lot of humour and will most likely remain one of the blackest comedies all year. It's also confirmation that Wheatley is definitely a talent to watch.
After accidentally killing her mother's beloved dog with a knitting needle Tina (Alice Lowe), makes a decision to leave her domineering mother and go on a caravan holiday with her new boyfriend Chris (Steve Oram). What Tina doesn't know is that Chris has a penchant for killing people who upset him. Tina soon becomes influenced by him and as they tour the English countryside, they leaves bodies in their wake at the camp sites, museums and tourist destinations that they visit.
After a brief introduction to our travelling odd-couple, Wheatley gets down to his turgid roadtrip where all manner of darkness ensues. Despite the, blacker-than-black, nature of the story he infuses it with a deadpan humour that counterbalances the events, disturbed behaviour and thought processes of the characters. After casually and callously despatching of unsuspecting, innocent victims our couple share their thoughts and warped sense of justification; at one point over dinner Tina suggests that "by reducing their life span you're reducing their omissions", to which Chris responds "so what you mean is... murder is green? I never thought of it like that". Tina is also a character who likes to have intercourse while sticking her face in a bowl of pot-pourri and wearing hand-knitted, crotchless lingerie. These are just a couple of examples of their deluded outlook and off-the-wall behaviour. Believe me, there are plenty more on their travels. What aids the film immeasurably is the two superb central performances from Steve Oram and Alice Lowe who also happen to have written the screenplay. While playing out their own characters, it shows that they fully understand the material and what's required to make them three dimensional. Meanwhile, Wheatley handles the extreme shifts in tone with absolute ease. There are some genuinely, hilarious moments that are coupled with a very twisted nature. For a film to have you laughing at it's darkness, is a testament to all involved here. Black comedies don't come much darker than this.
Having proved beforehand with "Kill List" that he could craft a sense of realism imbued with absolute horror. This time, Ben Wheatley shows excellent skill in balancing humour with an altogether different kind of horror and lunacy. It has been compared to the likes of "Natural Born Killers" and Mike Leigh's "Nuts In May" but I'd refer to this thoroughly rewarding little treat, as "Badlands" in the Midlands.

Mark Walker

A detestable crap that forces us to follow for eighty-eight minutes a couple of hateful psychopaths in a sick story that wants to be a very dark comedy and make fun of their gruesome atrocities - but everything is just too much bad taste to be remotely funny.

Sightseers is the ultimate black comedy. That is it is very black and very funny in a surprisingly equal measure. I don't think I've seen a film like it really, I've seen many funny horror films and horror films that are very funny but this is out there on its own. I suppose it's closer to the sort of thing done in certain surreal comedy sketch shows these days but a brave and accomplished feature version. I was shocked and amused in equal measure which surprised me as I prepared myself to hate it. The writers were also the main leads which I think was key, Low and Oram had to play the characters to make them real. I was lucky enough to see this at a preview screening before release with a Q&A session with Low, Oram and director Ben Wheatley and they put all of my initial thoughts about this film to rest quite quickly. The film is a reaction to the silly things people say in relationships, the stupid lyrics we hear in love songs and the stupid things people do for the ones they love but also because it's a funny idea and it's about time we saw something new. I would have failed miserably if it hadn't have been funny but luckily it is very funny and very much worth a watch. The ending is wickedly funny.

Director Wheatley won many admirers with his tense horror 'Kill List' last year. The story of two recession hit ex-squaddies who turn to contract killing for a shadowy organisation, it showed Wheatley was a talent to keep an eye on. Here was a film-maker who understood how to get under our skin, referencing classic seventies horrors like 'The Wicker Man', 'Race With the Devil' and 'The Omen' while creating something thoroughly contemporary. Though I was impressed with the manner in which he created a suffocating tension, I felt his previous work ultimately lead to an anti-climax. The same can be said for his latest, a black comedy, though one with horror elements.
Lowe and Oram are brilliant as a sociopath and his impressionably timid girlfriend. They set off for a week's holiday through some of middle England's less glamorous locales, stopping off to visit museums based on such diverse subjects as trams and pencils. Unbeknownst to his partner at first, Oram is on a killing spree, finding various ways of justifying his actions, often in a contradictory manner. His first victim is a litterbug while later he kills a rambler who complains that the couple are spoiling a tourist sight by not cleaning up after their dog. When Lowe discovers his secret she too embarks on a killing frenzy, though is much clumsier about covering her tracks, thus straining the relationship.

I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't find myself cracking up laughing at many points in Wheatley's film. Lowe and Oram are two skilled comic performers, combining whip crack timing with a physical awkwardness both amusing and endearing. It's been said there's no such thing as a cheap laugh but I have to disagree and this film backs up my view. Much of the amusement comes not from the script but the situation. Were you to watch a documentary about a pencil museum, for example, I suspect you would find it equally amusing. This sort of mocking humor is milked dry for the first hour, leaving you wondering exactly where this is all leading. The answer is nowhere in particular. This is a road trip which starts off well but ultimately finds itself rambling in a directionless manner. If you long for a working class British take on 'American Psycho', I suggest 2009's 'Tony' over this.

I was glad that booking this halarious black comedy at the Melbourne International Film Festival was so worth it. The story is centered around an odd couple; Chris (Steve Oram); who takes his girlfriend Tina (Alice Lowe) around the british towns of rural England for inspiration for a book he's writing, However their circumstances take unusual turns until things go horribly wrong. I may of heard about director Ben Weatley's earlier films' but haven't caught up yet. This film however show he's a skilled filmaker able to bring a promising film like this to viewers of adult comedy. Sightseers is woefully original, full of witty dialouge, charming characters and some of the best British Black Humour I have seen in a long time if not ever. Theres so many Laugh Out Loud moments I just really feel that this film should be given a limited release in Australia. Its was such a great surprise, and I do highly recomend this little recent british cinema.

Sightseers is disturbing, funny and instantly quotable - British Film in the very best sense!

A beautifully shot and well acted dark comedy gory flick, Sightseers just runs out of ideas way too quickly. It still manages to have some fun moments until the end and it's interesting to be put onto the role of these characters since you're never quite sure what to feel towards them. A bit more polish or less running time could've helped the film immensily, but this moody, unconfortable and quirky experience has a lot to absorb to be dismissed and is again, proof that Ben Wheatley will always have something interesting to say.

Black adventure comedy from left field, knurly plot and oddball characters.

Lovely british bit of everything.

The pitch black comedy is very hit and miss, with some jokes being very funny and some far too distasteful, but this weird genre mash up is clever, original and strangely entertaining.

A movie that plays with insanity while using it to poke fun at the insanity of a romantic relationship, the codependents, the jealousy, the fear of taking the first step (Which this movie literally takes to heart). Crafted beautifully, Characters performed flawlessly, and plenty of laughs and gasps.

Not as good as it probably should be. Sightseers is still a noticeable step up from the stumbling 2011 film Kill List.

Dark and disjointed but not much else to hold it together.

At heart this is Badlands (or Natural Born Killers) transported into two nerdish people in a caravan.
It really is, and it's quite funny.
Don't worry about the stories of blood, there isn't much violence in it, but plenty of laughs.

What a completely pointless film, I found the content sick, no wonder the youth of today are going off the rails! How many random accidents are going to happen now and be blamed on the media. Enough said it doesn't deserve more comment.

From my favorite filmmaker Edgar Wright! ( Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Attack the Block) It was unbelievably dark, black and bitter comedy drama. Only British can make it like that! Sometimes too much for informations, but it was really funny, shocking and very suspenseful. Climax was very nice and The Power of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was really great with it! 7 British Academy nominations, includes Best Picture. I'm so glad I got Blu-ray from UK and I saw it already! It was a deeply heavy human dramedy... Strange, I liked it!!!

This black comedy is a rough ride and not suitable for sensitive people.

A delightful British comedy-romance with a generous dose of of psychopathy.

Horrid. The characters are completely and utterly unappealing, the entire time you just want someone to finish the horrible b**tards off. Definitely not over the top enough to be gruesomely funny (as someone here has already said in their review), barely laughed. There were some moments of comedy genius but they were very few and far between. A complete one trick pony, with characters you want to punch in the face. Ugh.

More than an excellent dark romantic comedy Ben Wheatley describes our modern world through the eyes of desabused psychotic genX losers capable of love, hate, suffering even more than normal people are capable of. Chris and Tina may be more human than any non genX loser, but modern world is not made for them, maybe because it is simply chaotic and absurd. One must be moved by these touching characters who try to be so nornal but hopefully will never be. A must see.