Extra Cinema: The Gift (15)

Starring: Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall, Busy Philipps

Horror movies nowadays are a dime a dozen and are mainly rehashes of previous ones or simply carbon copies.

So what makes the latest offering The Gift different? Well, for starters funny man Jason Bateman takes the lead (I’ve never seen him in anything other than a comedy) and at least it has an original plot...

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Simon and Robyn (played by the afore mentioned Bateman and Rebecca Hall) are a young married couple whose life is panning out just as they had planned.

Well, that was until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon’s high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin.

Simon doesn’t recognize Gordo (Joel Edgerton) at first, when he bumps into him while out shopping with his wife , which I’m sure pleased him no end.

Despite this, his memory is soon jogged and the couple invite him to dinner.

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But Gordo starts acting strangely and, after a series of uninvited encounters between the two men and mysterious gifts which prove troubling for the married couple, Gordo threatens to destroy Simon with revelations about their shared history as a horrifying secret from the past is uncovered after being buried for more than 20 years.

As Robyn learns the unsettling truth about what really happened between

Simon and Gordo, she starts to question how well she really knows her husband and if things that happened in the old days really do stay there.

This is more psychological thriller than a jump-out-your-seat scary horror and it is all the better for it.

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While Bateman is great in his role as the plain husband, it is Edgerton who steals the show as the creepy and rather unnerving Gordo.

It is a bit slow to get going as most films from this genre are but stick with it – it’s worth your tenner entry fee.

Rating: 7/10