Complete A-Z list


Cherry Tree Lane

4/10

Stars: Jumayne Hunter, Tom Butcher, Rachael Blake, Jenny Jacques, Sonny Muslim, Ashley Chin, Corinne Douglas

Director: Paul Andrew Williams

Films about families held hostage by teenage hoodlums have been with us for more than 50 years, ever since John Cassavetes made his name as a knife-wielding punk in The Night Holds Terror (incidentally a better title for this film).

A squabbling suburban couple (Blake, Butcher) are waiting for their son Sebastian to come home when their quiet semi is invaded by three youths, who beat them up and bind them with tape. The aggressors, too, are waiting for Sebastian to come home - to take revenge for a 'grass' to police that ended in the leader's (Hunter) cousin being sent to prison.

Things escalate. The wife is dragged off to be raped, and two teenage 'bitches' arrive to egg their boyfriends on.

Alas, for all its brevity, the film engenders little tension, although Hunter, a picture of unsmiling aggression and resentment, does everything he can with his role. The action, however, is too unvarying, and the violence at the end almost a relief from the torpor that precedes it.

David Quinlan

UK 2010. UK Distributor: Metrodome. Colour by Soho Film Lab.
77 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 02 Sep 2010