ODYSSEY

***

Directed by Gerard Johnson.

Starring Polly Maberly, Mikael Persbrandt, Daniel De Bourg.

Thriller, UK, 110 Minutes. 

Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - English Premiere

Estate agent Natasha Flynn starts the week off with a trip to the dentist to get her tooth removed, in agonising close-up. From there her week goes further and further downhill. Despite all the trappings of a high paying job in London: a flash car, spacious loft apartment, champagne filled nights out clubbing on school nights, we soon see the high price for such living. Mounting debts from the bank, loan sharks and family members add more pressure onto her increasing paranoia. When the offer of a favour to remove some debt comes through, Natasha reluctantly agrees but is soon horrified to discover she is soon embroiled in a vicious kidnapping plot.

Gerard Johnson is certainly a dab hand at making the viewer uncomfortable with his tales of urban suffocation. While his previous works have been male oriented, Polly Maberly's portrayal of an increasingly frazzled woman on the edge fits right in with Johnson's gallery of corrupt cops, serial killers and drug addicted body builders. Maberly's performance is excellent, with her coke snorting, foul mouthed anti-heroine getting deeper and deeper into a sinister world that lurks just behind the surface of a city that looks truly sinister at times through cinematographer Korsshan Schlauer's lens.

There is a hint of an occult nature at one point but the film takes a bit of an odd turn into something far less satisfying for its final act. Although soaked in blood, it comes across as deflating, especially after the increasing pressure cooker act of what has come before, at times matching the intensity of films like UNCUT GEMS.

Polly Maberly however is the reason to see the film with her portrayal of a figure who is truly unlikable with all her lying, conniving and petty ways. At one point there is a hint of self-disgust that displays a level of awareness in both character and actor that marks her performance out as one of the best of the year. Johnson also displays his usual excellent handling of character along with moments of disturbing violence and hostility that often erupt from nowhere to make the film thrillingly uncomfortable and electrifying. Such a shame then that the ending decides to opt for an easy way out at its otherwise blackly humourous conclusion.

Iain MacLeod