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Director: Kit Ryan Stars: Stephen Dorff, Jamie Foreman, Geoff Bell, Jaime Murray, Bronagh Gallagher, Hugh O'Connor, Edward Baker Duly, Sean Pertwee Writer: Raymond Friel Eamon Friel, Derek Boyle Country: UK, Germany, Ireland, USA

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Ritchie Donovan (Stephen Dorf) is a professional and competent thief whose luck is about to end abruptly. After a successful diamond heist his getaway vehicle is involved in a horrific accident, resulting in the instant death of his gang. Now I can't emphasis enough about wearing your freakin' seatbelt, man! One of them propels from the back seat of the vehicle like a missile, straight through the front windscreen and goes head first into a wall. Now that's what I call opening with a bang! Ritchie, a little shaken up, bounds off up the road only to be hit by another vehicle, launching him into the air and scattering diamonds across the road, leaving him with no choice but make good his escape without the diamonds before the cops turn up.

We learn that the diamonds were for a Russian Mafia boss named Groznyi (Sean Pertwee) who had paid for Ritchie and his mother to immigrate to America from Russia when Ritchie was just a kid, and now that Ritchie is all grown up he must work as a professional thief for Groznyi in order to pay back the debt. The Diamond heist was supposed to clear all debts between him and Groznyi, but Ritchie is given another opportunity to make good his fuck up. Ritchie is given a job to steal a golden cross from the top floor penthouse of a highly secure office/apartment building. Long ago the golden cross belonged to the family of Ivan the Terrible and Groznyi wants it bad. Ritchie believes that the heist will be a cinch. What do you think?

Very seldom does a comedy blend successfully with horror; especially in accordance to my tastes. As we all know, comedy is hard, dying is easy. There are those who think that Scream blended the two genres successfully. I'm told that it did and the box office success of Scream tells me it did, but to be honest? Scream managed only to get a low decibel chuckle out of me…and maybe a snort. Now Feast, or Return of the Living Dead, that's my taste in horror comedy. I mean come on, split dogs!! That's something that I will never forget and I still laugh out loud to the thought of those cute little half-puppies wriggling around on the floor. Or what about that baby monster-thing humping the cow-head hanging on the back wall of the bar in Feast? I went into cardiac arrest when I saw that. Now this leads me onto the movie at hand. Is it a horror movie? Oh absolutely. Is it a comedy? Hell Yeah! Is it a horror comedy? You freakin' better believe it man!! This has to be one of the most hilarious, snot-choking films that I have seen for a long, long while. Possibly ever.

The movie feels like a cross between Cube, House of 9, Saw, Scream and any Tarantino movie that you can think of. Now remember, 'feels' is the operative word. There are no direct or indirect references to these movies in any obvious way. The script from Raymond and Eamon Friel is witty and clever with its own unique style. Not necessarily original (but what is these days?), however it is certainly a refreshing piece of work. The sometimes deadpan humour is generated from a well written script; a nicely developed group of quirky characters and excellent acting that is played straight or with a subtle twist of silliness. Watch out for the rat (as in rodent), my favourite character who really steals the show and the body parts. Voted 'Best Rat in a movie' by me!