User Reviews

Just released from jail, father and son Bill and Karl (played by real life father and son Bob and Robin Hill) are patriarchs of a small crime family. Their business and life in Down Terrace is plagued with infighting. When Karl's estranged girlfriend claims to be carrying his child, Karl's added priorities create tension amongst his immediate family. Suspicions grow when the family believes there's an informant in their midst that could send them all to prison for a very long time.

This film is hard to categorize. Some have called it a British version of Sopranos. While it is a story about a crime family, there's nothing very "gangster" about them. They don't dress or look the part. The three characters, Bill, Karl, and Maggie (Julie Deakin), Karl's mother, look and act like a regular blue collar family. They're not particularly convincing as gangsters (which may be why they're so well-hidden). For a good chunk of the movie, I had forgotten they were gangsters at all. Kind of like the TV show Roseanne, they bicker about regular family issues. Heavy with dialogue and awkward situations, the film plays almost like a comedic sitcom. It could have been about any family business and it would have worked.

There's realism and candor in the film's look and style. Characters talk about everyday things. Characters are often irritable, unkempt, and cumbersome. The camera is often hand-held, jerky, and frequently focuses on the mundane. The dialogue is often quite sharp and funny. It's certainly not glitzy like a gangster film.

There's virtually no action until the latter half of the film. Admittedly, some parts dragged. And, some parts are engrossing and sentimental. Some parts take you by surprise. The film's focus on both the mundane and the surprising moments is perhaps used to its benefit, but can sometimes feel a little uneven in terms of pacing. When the unexpected, violent moments hit, it reminded me that yes, this is indeed a "gangster" film. This results in some great dark humor. Advertisement

The characters truly make this film. The dynamics between Bill, Karl, and Maggie are realistic, funny, dysfunctional, and sad. Bob Hill is particularly memorable as Bill, an aging father who is frequently disappointed and putting down his son, Karl. Robin Hill expertly plays off his real-life father Bob (who plays Bill) as the constantly-frustrated Karl. Julie Deakin gives a complex, multifaceted performance as Maggie, the loving, sometimes scheming, mother, who may not always be as kind as she appears. The supporting cast, which consist of thugs who often do not act like thugs, bring proper amount of quirky, dry humor.

Given the expectations one may have of the frequently popular gangster genre, fans of that genre will likely be let down by this film while missing out on this film's more subtler, deeper story about family relationships. The initial pacing of the film may try some people's patience. It did me a little. I wished the film hadn't really characterized itself as a story about a crime family or a "gangster film" because it really isn't. I think it perhaps hurts the film somewhat—it makes it seem less real, maybe more gimmicky. This is closer to a family drama…with occasional violence thrown in. One may mistakingly go in expecting The Godfather. I can see this film re-imagined as a small crime story starring ordinary people—something akin to a Coen Brothers' film. These characters are odd, quirky, and dark in that vein.

I enjoyed the humor and the little surprises in this film despite the fact that the plot didn't always keep my interest. Some parts are quite banal and I sometimes wondered where the film was going. The film picks up considerably on the second half and the film's theme seems to follow the old adage that "what goes around comes around." By the end, though, it was ultimately the memorable characters that remained with me long afterwards.

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Looking at the DVD cover of Down Terrace, you would be forgiven for dismissing it as yet another geezer-filled entry into the British crime genre, directed by somebody who watched Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) growing up and fancied themselves as capable of doing the same. Yet Ben Wheatley's debut feature goes out to do exactly the opposite, and instead of motor- mouthed crims with ridiculous nicknames and heists-gone-wrong, we get a kitchen-sink drama, at least for the first two-thirds, filmed almost entirely within the constraints of a run-of-the-mill house in Brighton.

After a stint in prison, Karl (Robin Hill, who co-wrote the script with Wheatley) returns to the family home with his father Bill (Robert Hill, Robin's real-life father) to try and sniff out the rat who is threatening to bring down their criminal organisation. With the help of mother Mags (Julia Deakin), they invite various associates, including idiot club owner Garvey (Tony Way), muscle Eric (David Schaal) and hit-man Pringle (Michael Smiley), to their home in an attempt to suss them out. Karl is barely able to cope with the relentless criticism dished out by his father and his family's general dysfunction, and the atmosphere is made worse with the re-appearance of Valda (Kerry Peacock), an old flame now (apparently) pregnant with Karl's child.

Channelling the work of various British film-makers, including Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows, Down Terrace attempts to draw you in slowly, creating an atmosphere of unease before unleashing its bloody final act. It should be a clever subversion of the genre, and in some ways it is, but this is hampered by a measured approach and a self-awareness, similar to the problems Sightseers (2012) had. There isn't a fault to be had with the performances, especially Robert Hill as the everyman crime boss with a slight aura of buffoonery about him. It's also very funny on occasion, and one of Wheatley's real strengths as a film-maker is luring you in with laughs while never allowing you to be completely comfortable. Ultimately, it's a distinctive test of endurance with flashes of brilliance, doing wonders with a micro-budget.

This low budget British crime drama is as entertaining as it is inspirational for film makers everywhere. Played by a real life father and son in the main character roles, the story revolves around the two men (shot mainly in their real life family home) as they are released from prison and set out to determine who is the police informant in their circle. It makes excellent use of a simple acoustic soundtrack, also helped by the fact that the father likes to play guitar as well and is an old hippy, who has, over the years morphed into a gangster and so is different from your usual cockney style villain. This being shot in Brighton also shows a different side to the city which is usually perceived as simply a holiday destination. The plot while being slightly ambitious is played out by the actors very convincingly and holds your attention throughout. I would encourage anyone to see this movie, apart from maybe Michael Bay!

This film was billed as a comedy but I found it so darkly comic that I could almost take it as a straight-up drama. All the performances were excellent with both Robert and Robin Hill putting in stellar turns. A cross between a kitchen sink drama and a fly-on-the-wall documentary, I found the filming style made for a compelling watch. Unfortunately there were a couple of niggles. They are supposed to be drug dealers but we see no drug dealing going on. Also, the police were very conspicuous by their absence; not one policeman seen all the way through. You'd have thought the police would definitely be watching someone with their track record. Other than that I found it an interesting and compelling watch. Just a word for the squeamish though, Ben Wheatley does not hold back on the violence. There are a couple of quite graphic scenes in there that might have you wincing.

SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 7.1/10.

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

By far Wheatley's weakest film, and that's coming from a massive fan. That said I started with Kill List, then went to A field in England, then Sightseers, High Rise and now this.

I think if I'd have watched them as they had been made then I may have given it an extra point.

But anyway, a fly in the ointment.

This basically centers on a highly dysfunctional crime family who tear themselves apart. I won't go into the reasons why, mainly because you can't tell!

In a typical Wheatley fashion, it's sometimes hard to tell what all of the fuss is about, but the actors hold it together nicely. It's great to see the old ensemble in the early days at work and there seems to be a theme of the same actors being cast throughout his movies.

This tells us two things:

1. How versatile of an actor and director Wheatley is and 2. How good the actors are to bring their familiar faces to an audience that knows them, and to pull something completely different out of the bag.

The movie itself however lacks depth for me and some of the deaths just seemed pointless.

However on a finishing note, the musical choreography is awesome and I was pleased to hear some Robert Johnson tracks being played.

If you are going to become a 'Wheatley-ist', then definitely start with this. It's a good beginner film for his style and showcases what he is good at and as you watch his other stuff- you will see just how much he has developed into one of my faves.

A strange, extremely low-budget, little film and director Ben Wheatley's first picture. After watching the slightly overrated KILL LIST and the bomb that is A FIELD IN ENGLAND, I think that his debut is also his most honest work: DOWN TERRACE is a straightforward, if complex, black comedy that explores murder carried out between friends and family.

The film is essentially set in a single house and follows a father/son team who have just been released from prison. They sit around, swear a lot, and gradually begin to realise that somebody grassed them up. Unfortunately, these characters are by far the least interesting, and real-life actor/son pairing of Robert and Robin Hill is the film's biggest detraction as we're stuck with them for so long. Robert's character, in particular, is fairly pointless in the run of things, while Robin Hill just doesn't cut it as a lead.

The supporting characters are a lot better, not least Michael Smiley's excellent extended cameo as the amusingly-named family man Pringle; Smiley brings an air of real menace with him, and is by far the best thing in the picture. Imagine the picture with Smiley in the lead role! Sadly, it wasn't to be. Meanwhile, Tony Way's also a lot of fun as the dim-witted Garvey, while David Schaal's tackles his stock gangster character with relish.

After the slow start, it soon transpires that DOWN TERRACE is simply a film about a series of quirky deaths (I understand that Wheatley's recent movie SIGHTSEERS is much the same, so this must be a preoccupation of his). The deaths are funny, outrageous and shocking at the same time, building to a nicely grand-feeling climax despite the low budget nature of the production. This isn't a great movie and it's not really one I'd be looking at watching again, but I can safely say that Wheatley's done much, much worse!

British crime films are a very mixed bunch, for every 'Long Good Friday' or 'Sexy Beast', there is a whole load of low rent, formulaic fayre of diminishing returns.

This film has one advantage from the off, not being set in London - or as many of the characters in the poorer films of this genre say it, 'Laanndan'. (Hiding those well brought up accents can be a strain perhaps).

It's set in Brighton, a town (recently upgraded to a 'City') on England's south coast. But not the Brighton known to many here in recent years, the place of celeb second homes, nightclub culture, a liberal place for homosexuals before most of the rest of the country became more adult and relaxed about this part of society.

The Brighton of mundane suburbia is the setting, not the cultural epicentre.

Largely set in a home, where Bill and his wife live with their 34 year old son, we first see them, the father and son, after being acquitted in a drugs trial, little to celebrate though - how did they get into court in the first place? Who grassed them up - have to be someone close, to their right little, tight little world of lower ranking club employees and drug pushers.

The home is the actual dwelling of the actor playing the father, where the son - his real life son - was actually brought up. Only the mother is played by a quite familiar actress - Julia Deakin. The father, Bill, being an ex hippy who wistfully reflects on the brief period of apparent enlightenment through Cannabis and LSD, via yoga and the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, before money, crime, harder drugs, intruded - which swept up Bill too.

So begins a claustrophobic period of suspicion, paranoia, leading to violence and murder. Between bouts of domestic bickering, including a 'meet my pregnant girlfriend' family dinner that is a mire of passive-aggressiveness.

The cast are largely drawn - when they are not family members of the writer and actor playing the son - from innovative and usually rather dark comedy shows and stand up.

Micro budget it might have, but Down Terrace punches well above it's weight. Lack of flash leads to a concentration on family dynamics - albeit a deeply disturbing one - realistic script and genuine plot shocks and surprises.

This film is refreshing, often laugh out loud funny - darkly funny usually - intense and a real gem. Clearly a labour of love from the small team involved in the whole production, a labour though of inspiration rather than just perspiration.

An average family just going about their unhappy moody horrible existence. The beauty is this happens daily and is possibly your neighbour and therein lies the genuis.

I read the reviews here and being a great fan of British gangster films, I was looking forward to watching this.I found it a colossal disappointment. It is NOT entertaining,suspenseful,edifying,moving or in any way interesting.It IS crass,vulgar,boring and repulsive. We see a social class E family living in a rundown Council house pretending that they are in some way serious gangsters with sinister underworld connections. If they derive an income from organised crime,why are they living in a slum? They are generally fat,ugly,unemployable and unappealing people acting like rejects from an Eastenders episode.They try to give the the impression of being physically tough but any US marine,British commando or 2 REP guy could walk through the lot of them in 60 seconds.I have met families like these.They don't work because no one would employ them. They live on the outskirts of society in a miasma of drugs,alcohol,schoolboy violence and general depravity. The only thing that seems to set this lot apart is a deeply morbid pathology.Quite what the director and actors were trying to show us defeats me completely. I'm all for ¨real¨drama but this was like watching psychopathic chimpanzees in a zoo. And no,I didn't like it.

Writer/director Ben Wheatley's debut feature film Down Terrace is British drama that fuses together the kitchen sink social realism of Shane Meadows, Ken Loach and 'The Royle Family' to make compelling yet highly uncomfortable viewing. Wheatley, who demonstrates flair for creating small moments of humour around intense menace really sets his marker down with this unsettling look into the world of a crime family in steep decline. Thanks to being mostly confined to the small rooms of your average two-up-two-down terraced house, the film has a sense of real claustrophobia which is accentuated all the more by the intensity of the drama. It's one of those films where even as people sit down to a family meal, you can sense the brewing violence in the air. The tight, confined spaces only serve to heighten the feeling of being trapped in these small rooms with psychotic characters. All the performances register strongly, the picks being Robert Hill (Bill) and Julia Deakin (Maggie), the mother and father of the house, or Godfather and Godmother. To begin with, Maggie has the demeanour of the loving, but downtrodden Mum who runs to the kitchen when the boys start arguing, but as things unfold her character develops and the performance is chillingly well measured. Anyone familiar with Wheatley's follow up film 'Kill List' will cheer when the likable Michael Smiley turns up in a similar small role. So, Down Terrace sets a strong precedent for a debut director with its realism, horror and blacker than black comedy

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The plot to Down Terrace is mostly formulaic for the gangster genre- two men being released from prison, belonging to a crime family, trying to suss out the police informant who put them there, and everything going haywire as they near closer to who they think is the culprit. But it seems to think it's cleverer than maybe it is, with so little inspiration to the story and nothing snazzy in other departments. None of the dialogue rings true or feels natural and it's hard to take Jay's dad from The Inbetweeners seriously in one of the gangster roles. Someone else may interpret it a little differently, but personally, the novelty was lost. **

It's a movie you will enjoy only if you enjoy being cheated.

The music is awful, and it's the only thing I thought it was well executed. The actors are good, but the characters are not worthy. It's never rally developed and it look like a collage of ideas from everywhere with a not really good result. The movie feels cheap instead of home made (I adore cheap films when you don't think about the budget while you are watching) but also, it feels like the people involved never had the courage to accept it wasn't material for a full length movie, maybe a short might have worked well.

Dark comedy never really comes, not at all, since it's not very well justified (not in a poetic, non-sense way), it is just bad written, not absurd, or evil, or with a commentary in human nature, it just repeats what dark humor geniuses have done, without understanding why humor has to be black, but also humor (like Swift, or Marquis de Sade's writing) it felt so superficial that the only funny thing around this movie, is people saying "if you don't think is funny, it's because you are dumb".

This movie is, in my opinion, a waste; of good ideas, of good actors and a waste of the viewers experience, and I feel guilty cause I've spent some time writing about it.

Just watch it if you LOVED Kill List, the whole thing, even the lazy ending.

Set in a mundane suburban area of Kent, DOWN TERRACE is the blackest of black comedies involving a family headed by Bill (Robin Hill) who in collaboration with his son Karl (Robin Hill) tries to discover the identity of an informant who shopped them to the police and thereby confined them to prison. There are several suspects among their intimate group, notably Eric (David Schaal), Garvey (Tony Way), and Councillor Berman (Mark Garvey). Meanwhile Eric and his wife Maggie (Julia Deakin) object to Karl's continuing relationship with Valda (Kerry Peacock).

Ably performed in semi-improvised style by a first-rate cast, Ben Wheatley's film emphasizes the culture of mistrust that permeates this so-called close network of criminals. Although professing loyalty to one another through frequent hugs and epithets ("You know I love you"), it's clear that no one really can rely on anyone else to be truthful either in their behavior or their responses to one another. This is a dog-eat-dog community in which only the fittest can survive. There are some gory moments in the film, but they are handled with such panache that we understand Wheatley"s purpose in including them - in a world where 'good' and 'evil' no longer exist, every behavioral move can be seen as absurd, even comic.

Tautly filmed with an astute use of close-up, pans and two-shots in tight spaces, DOWN TERRACE is a low (or perhaps) no-budget piece of work that nonetheless confirms the director's mastery of cinematic form. Highly recommended.

I've got the feeling I may have been lied to . The plot summary of the likes of IMDb say DOWN TERRACE revolves around a plot of a couple of gangsters being released from jail and trying to find out who grassed them up . This is misleading marketing because you might be expecting a Tarintino type story of revenge set in Britain . As the somewhat mixed comments on this page point out that's not really how the story unravels . The vast majority of the running time is taken up with the characters sitting around talking and swearing in a sort of British realist film that no one outside of the indie circuit will really want to watch Director

Ben Wheatley deserves some credit . He got off his backside and made a film on a shoestring budget with his own money instead of writing begging letters to the Arts Council . That said the first half of the film is a total drag with totally unlikable characters directed in a totally unengaging manner which is a serious flaw if a film is character driven . Perhaps I'm being uncharitable but many of the cast are poor and perhaps Wheatley should invested in better actors but it's to Mr Wheatley what he wants to spend his money on and I'm glad I didn't spend my own money watching it in a cinema

All of the 1% reviews on here are by Americans that just don't get it? this is classic British sink, no blinking explosions or any CGI. I find it disturbing that people actually come on to IMDb to rip into an excellent film, made with heart (and no budget) . If you want to be a faux critic at least learn the art of spelling and not bashing art for having 'so much dialogue, and not enough action' Ben Wheatley pulls his A game here. If you don't get it, fine. But there is no need to mark it down. /rant.

It has some interesting conversations and characters, but the plot for me didn't made any sense, it was just senseless butchery. i know Wheatley's work, I really loved A field in england and i liked the episodes he directed for Ideal series, but this film was a waste of my energy, this is sadly his weakest film, i don't get why people find it funny or "dark comedy", i didn't laugh at all, it's just stressful and akward

On repeated viewings, this film becomes more enjoyable as a very,very,very dark comedy.

Initially as a crime/drama it has an endearing and shocking effect, but I can't help feeling that Ben Wheatley's intention for this was to be a dark comedy.

It's raw, disturbing, but the outrageous psychosis in this film now has me laughing all the way through.

The acting, claustrophobic camera work and the music are excellent.

Deserves a 9/10.

I'm writing this review of Down Terrace after watching the film and experiencing a severe case of dejavu at the same time.

I hired it on the basis that I like gritty British gangster movies and I saw this one's trailer on another similar film. However, after about twenty minutes I got the distinct impression that I'd seen the film before, as I was predicting most of the scenes accurately. The reason for this was that I had seen it before. However, I had turned it off after about half an hour due to the fact that it was awful.

Somehow I had erased the memory of this film and then hired it out again thinking it was a different one (and, once again, duped by the trailer).

Now, I've looked on various movie-related websites and the reaction to Down Terrace is - overall - pretty positive. I don't know what it was about the film, but it just didn't do it for me.

It's about a family of gangsters who, two of which have just returned from Court, and now believe that there's a 'mole' within the organisation.

Perhaps one thing that majorly bugged me was that none of the - supposed - gangsters really seemed like gangsters. Maybe I'm just used to Guy Ritchie's stereotypes, but this lot came across as a load of fat, middle-aged men who you'd find propping up the bar at a Working Man's club. They weren't in the least bit threatening (as you might expect a hardened gangster to be). As for the 'black comedy' that was repeatedly mentioned in other reviews, I couldn't find any.

I forced myself to sit through the whole thing this time, hoping to find out what I was apparently missing. I couldn't see it myself. Just because a film is low budget, does not make it particularly good. I'm now writing this review in the hope that when I next watch the trailer for Down Terrace by accident, I don't think to myself 'Ooh, that looks good, I think I'll watch it' and just remind myself that it's awful.

I hate to be all 'overly commercial,' but I think I'll stick to Guy Ritchie's stylised representations of the London criminal underworld in future.

Complete waste of time. I fast forwarded at the end just to see the stupid end. Bloody, awful, meaningless piece of crap that the producers call a movie?? No wonder it has grossed $9000 only. It has no meaning, just a family killing people and their own. I don't believe I've wasted time on this sh*t. I've seen bad movies in the past, but this one tops them all.

Complete waste of time. I fast forwarded at the end just to see the stupid end. Bloody, awful, meaningless piece of crap that the producers call a movie?? No wonder it has grossed $9000 only. It has no meaning, just a family killing people and their own. I don't believe I've wasted time on this sh*t. I've seen bad movies in the past, but this one tops them all.

What a family! These are not your glam gangsters - seedy, paranoid; gotta keep it low-key - don't repaint the living room - too ostentatious. Low budget; no wastage; tight dialogue; well acted; some good sounds to boot from old hippy Dad and co. The humour's well black and the characters well credible (I'm sure they live just up the road). I loved them all, the conniving and the hilarious bodge jobs. It gets a bit out of hand (read that with whatever intonation you want). It's an absolute hoot and a little diamond of a film that'll survive repeat viewings.