THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

Directed by: Simon Rumley
Released: 2006

judging by the title, i was expecting a low/no-budget horror flick-- this is not the case. a nearly bankrupt aristocrat in the UK is forced to sell his massive (seriously, the place is fucking huge) estate, but in order to do so, he must leave and head to london for a few days, leaving behind his terminally ill wife and his schizophrenic (and possibly retarded) man-child of a son. a nurse is hired to take care of them while he's away, but the son (james) wants to be "the man of the house," so he locks her out. he then proceeds to take care of his mother, much to her horror. i can't really say too much without giving things away, so i'll just say this: due to the strikingly familiar "requiem for a dream"-esque shots which often border on ripping off aranofsky, the filmmaker creates quite a bit of tension. there's lots of flashbacks and flashforwards that make you question what's real and what's hallucinated, and there were some scenes that made me downright uncomfortable. worth a watch. 6/10.