Pre-Slamdance Purchase: Magnet are ‘Down’ with Ben Wheatley’s Debut

Regularly pulling titles from the U.K., Magnet Releasing have made a preemptive Slamdance purchase, picking up what the company calls “a genre bending portrait of a crime family” and by the looks of the trailer, this fusion that is being talked about in the press release appears to hold up. Those who caught the film at Austin’s Fantastic Fest (where the pic won a couple of awards) are already in the know as to why Ben Wheatley’s Down Terrace is being referred to the kind label of “The Sopranos” if imagined by Mike Leigh or Ken Loach. If ever there was a genre that was in need of new wave its the “tired gangster film” from the U.K – the Toronto Int. Film Festival had a couple of them and my sentiment was that someone had to re-think the formula. Magnet will play the festival circuit this spring, with a theatrical release this summer.

Here’s a B-side fest description of the film: DOWN TERRACE opens with Bill (Bob Hill) and his son Karl (Rob Hill) leaving a courthouse after a stint in jail. As soon as they get out, the pair try to figure out who ratted them out to the police. Its not exactly clear why Bill and Karl were locked up, but their habitual drug intake and shady dealings indicate that they are up to no good. Karl’s wife (Julia Deakin) seems nice enough, but she is intricately involved in the skullduggery that got her husband and son locked up. Various suspicious characters enter the scenario, including hated family friend Garvey (Tony Way), a hit man named Pringle (Michael Smiley) who carries his toddler to jobs, Karl’s pregnant girlfriend (Kerry Peacock), and a brutal oaf named Eric (David Schaal). Everyone suspects each other of being a snitch, and the paranoia blossoms into a deadly web of plots and schemes.