F

Johanne Robert's F is the latest "hoodie horror" following in the footsteps of ILS and EDEN LAKE and coming at the same as Paul Williams' CHERRY TREE LANE. Roberts himself as been an active participant in the UK horror scene making a name for himself with micro-budget features most notably the Horror Channel favourite FOREST OF THE DAMNED and the made for mobile phones WHEN EVIL CALLS.

Based on real circumstances where a teacher was killed for handing out an F-grade to a pupil Johanne Roberts' F takes the story and adds an element of siege where teachers and a few lingering pupils remaining in a school at the end of the day come under attack from faceless hooded thugs who move in preternatural ways and bring death in the form of box cutters and wrenches. The film is a thread bare suspense exercise that exploits the current lingering knife culture in the UK.

Roberts latest is a significant step up from his previous productions coming at a time when it looked like the negative reviews were going to swallow his career alive. Gloriously shot on the RED One camera, though will a little over use of the out of focus trickery, F looks like a bona fide large scale production with an outstanding performance from lead David Schofield and some creepy and well executed antagonists. It is a shame the film becomes laden with a few slasher cliches such as stumbling victims or impossible deaths when it goes to such lengths to avoid being trapped in the mobile phone cliches. A little more of the violence on screen could have heightened the experience though one particular attack aftermath could be the most memorable effect of the year.

F plays out more as a slasher/horror than the expected hoodie/torture thing and manages to be topical and a bit of a 70s throwback at the same time.

I got semi-erect at this one.