Overview
Erotic odyssey, killing spree, caravanning holiday, whatever you call it, British black comedy Sightseers is an entertaining movie that will have you hiding behind your hands in equal measure from both laughter and gore.
In this third film directed by Ben Wheatley, sensible parka-wearing Chris (Steve Oram) is Tina’s (Alice Lowe) new boyfriend. He wants to show her his world and he wants to do it his way. Their journey through the British Isles in his beloved Abbey Oxford Caravan is one filled with plot twists and surprising character growth. Tina has led just about the most sheltered life imaginable with her suffocating mother. Apart from the family dog (which she is accused of murdering in the most hilarious way – be warned, the knitting needles are the real enemy) she has no friends and no connection to the outside world. That is, until she meets Chris.
You would think these two introverts wouldn’t be able to get up to too much trouble in a caravan around the British Isles, but their zany adventures and crazy justifications are hilarious, if not a bit early Peter Jackson-like in their gory nature. At the seemingly sedate tram museum Chris is pushed over the edge by a falling ice-cream wrapper and the obnoxious nature of the litterer. What follows is the first of many murders in the film. It seems to lift the lid on the main characters sexual desires and unleash the monsters within. While the first half of the film sees Chris driving the action, the second half sees Tina finally break free from her suffocating chains to make her own decisions. Granted she may not make the most moral or legal decisions, but they see her taking control for the first time in her life.
It's entertaining to watch Chris and Tina talking about mundane things while disposing of bodies in the same breath. Visits by the characters to the Tram Museum, the Pencil Museum and Ribblehead Viaduct bring about such fierce emotions for such routine places. If this boring average couple can turn out to be such sociopaths, it makes you wonder what lurks inside all of us. I enjoyed the different levels of the characters that were peeled away throughout the film, and even though you start to expect what’s coming in relation to the murders, it still seems fresh each time. Even the ending had me squealing ‘oh no’ in my seat.