[4.50/10] Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

This UK urban thriller titled "Cherry Tree Lane" tells the story of a middle-aged couple who are terrorized in their home by a group of teenagers who want kill their son. Though I perfectly understand this film's concept and everything, I found it somewhat incomplete, quite predictable and a bit amateurish to be honest. It's difficult not to compare this film with similar 'home invasion' films like "Funny Games" and "The Strangers", and while I didn't love any of the above mentioned, I thought "Cherry Tree Lane" was even weaker, due to overly familiar scenario, very limited settings and characters you can hardly connect and feel sympathy for, because the focus is mostly on the intruders, who have no rational motives for torturing this family. Almost nothing happens in the first 20 minutes or so, and unfortunately Paul Andrew Williams' attempt to build tension fails completely, as the results in nothing but boredom. The film is thoroughly disturbing and nasty, yet not as effective as it think it is, and not even moderately scary, thrilling or intense. Also, director's choice of minimalistic scenery and lots of extreme close-up shots just don't work that well as he might think. Acting-wise, the film is pretty decent. Both, Tom Butcher and Rachael Blake do a fairly good job as the tortured couple, but the real stand out here is Jumayn Hunter, who delivers truly creepy performance as the unpredictable and sadistic Rian. Actually, the most terrifying thing about "Cherry Tree Lane" is way the director portrays young British people, particularly young black people - as an ignorant, narrow-minded sadistic idiots. "Cherry Tree Lane" has its moments and is far from awful, but it feels more like an unsatisfying exercise in film-making, rather than a brutal, violent thriller, and due to director's lack of imagination, the film seems to run out of ideas towards the end, despite its ultra-short running time.