Caravan killers

Here’s a fun diversion for all the family: how many ‘high-concept’ film ideas can you think of in a single minute? These are the films with premises that can be summed up — and pitched to expectant, impatient Hollywood producers — in only a few words. ‘Jaws in Space’, say, or ‘Arnie versus Hitler’. Get started now, and you could soon have the studios drooling a path to your door, eager to turn your aphorisms into easily marketable products. Red carpets and golden paycheques await.

I mention this because, at first glance, it seems as if Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers is the result of a similar game. Its plot concerns a youngish couple going on a camping holiday around Britain, and killing people along the way — in other words, ‘Bonnie and Clyde in a caravan’. It smells like something we’ve encountered before, only with a slight twist to keep it fresh. Surely this one is going to be a straightforward sell.

Except it’s not, and you shouldn’t be fooled. It turns out that Sightseers, like Wheatley’s previous film Kill List (2011), defies easy summary and categorisation. Yes, it does feature a youngish couple going on a camping holiday around Britain, and killing people along the way — but I’m not sure that’s really what it is about. It seems more like an exercise in mood and character: a comedy that makes you feel sick; a horror that makes you laugh; a portrait of two people and the countryside. Hollywood would probably call it ‘low concept’.

One of the things that Sightseers may be about — although I could be wrong — is detail. The opening scenes, which introduce our lovers Chris (Steve Oram) and Tina (Alice Lowe), as well as her vindictive mother (Eileen Davies), are overwhelmed by a background patina of picture frames and mop handles, knitting needles and tablecloths.