336. Unhappy Birthday

So, back to the Pout, the LBGT roaming festival and it is the turn of the bisexual offering from directors Mark Harriott and Mike Matthews.
But while there is a smattering of explicit sex this turns from a film about saucy relationships into a Whicker Man-style horror.
Indeed, while Unhappy Birthday flies off at all sorts of different tangents, it is the flat acting rather than the ambitious script which lets it down.
The plotline follows  a couple, Rick and Sadie (David Paisley and Christina De Vallee), who have arranged a weekend away to celebrate her birthday.
It transpires, though, that venue for their romantic liaison is an eerie island at the end of a causeway which is submerged at high tide.
Also along for the ride (geddit) is Rick's best mate (!?!) Jonny (Jonathan Keane).
And, another surprise for Sadie is that Rick has discovered her long lost sister is staying on the island.
Jill Riddiford is the sister and plays her as a cross between naive local and manipulative psychopath.
As said, there is explicit gay sex as well as a fair few boob shots but on 'ow's yer father is the last thing on anyone's mind when we realise the islanders are all a bit bonkers and that blood will flow.
Indeed, by the end it drifts, rather unexpectedly into a full-blown gore fest.
The screnplay gives Unhappy Birthday the chance of having a fair degree of tension but none of the actors show enough emotion to make the audience believe in it.
And long before the end, its outcome is obvious.
But credit where it's due, for a low budget movie, there was still much promise in Harriott and Matthews' work.
And I'm giving it 5/10.