Body at Brighton Rock is a survival horror film written and directed by Roxanne Benjamin (Southbound) and had its world premiere at the 2019 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW).
The film follows young park ranger Wendy (Karina Fontes), who offers to cover her friend and fellow ranger’s usual mountain trails as a favor, despite being unfamiliar, inexperienced, and scared of her own shadow. Wendy thinks it will be a walk in the park and goes on her way, but later gets lost and loses her map. On top of that misfortune, she also finds a mangled dead body on the trail. After radioing it in, she attempts to describe where she is located and is instructed to stay with the body overnight so a team can investigate in the morning. Her luck goes from bad to worse when she sees a mysterious man lurking around, yet she must survive the night in the wilderness alone, aside from the dead body.
Body at Brighton Rock initially has quite a bit going for it, with a retro-inspired soundtrack, beautiful cinematography, and strong characters. The intensity of Wendy’s situation ratchets up fairly quickly once she discovers she’s lost, and that intensity holds tight for a few scenes that follow. The pace begins to slow as the film starts to rely too heavily on sudden loud noises and simple things like the wind blowing. Early on, there are warnings about the dangers of being on the mountain overnight, such as frostbite, so one would assume that this would come into play, or even hunger, thirst, and the usual lost in the wilderness issues. However, Wendy was never in danger from any of these things. The last act was definitely a shining moment for Body at Brighton Rock and brought about a nice twist.
The performances were solid, and there is no question that Roxanne Benjamin is a director that will do, and has done, some great things within the genre. Perhaps Body at Brighton Rock would have benefited from being a short film, doing away with some of the jump scare/noise filler, making it a bit more impactful.
Body at Brighton Rock will see a limited theatrical release and hit Digital on April 26th via Magnet Releasing.
