The Barge People
Kate Davies-Speak (Kat), Mark McKirdy (Mark), Natalie Martins (Sophie), Matt Swales (Ben), Makenna Guyler (Jade), Kane Surry (Ricky), Emma Spurgin Hussey (Landlady), David Lennik (Simon), Rory Wilton (Brian), Barrington de la Roche (Creepy Old Man), Tim Cartwright (Albert)
The barge people
The film starts off particularly well with the idyllic trip down the canals going awry after they scrape against another barge, which nearly erupts into a fight in a bar. The barge people, who are portrayed as rural and uncouth, later return and invade the group’s barge, tying the two couples up and menacing them.
This is a standard Backwoods Brutality set-up. However, the spin that is then put on things is that the attack is interrupted as one of the mutant creatures enters the boat and starts devouring one of the party. This erupts into a furious fight where those remaining are suddenly forced to cooperate with people that minutes before had been their captors in order to survive.
The film gets two good acts out of the material. The latter sections become fairly standard Backwoods Brutality scenes running around pursued by the mutant fish creatures. There are various pursuits, recaptures, a fall into a pit, a twist thrown on things just when people think they have gotten to safety. It is not quite as absorbing and intense as the early sections are and falls into much of a muchness. Nevertheless, it shows promising things for Charlie Steeds.
