I have said before that I’m English by birth but Welsh by heritage. My father was Welsh and summer holidays were spent in the mining village where my grandparents lived. Where I live now, and grew up, is less than 30km from North Wales. Well…as the crow flies. The River Dee actually doubles that distance! But there are certain things that bring out my inner Welshman. Eating a Welsh Cake still warm from the stone, the smell of a coal fire, and Michael Sheen reading Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night all bring out my inner Celt. I did try learning Welsh but Duolingo seemed fixated on dragons and parsnips.
This week I was offered three films to review which were being released on the same day. Normally three films in a week isn’t that big of a problem for me as I’m retired and happy sitting watching stuff that I’m sent. However, this week is the Easter holidays which means that if my daughter is to get her job done then someone needs to mind the grandchildren. Step forward the grandparents who live down the road! So a decision had to be made. I had a quick look at the blurb and one of them was the first offering from a new studio. A new Welsh studio…Melyn Pictures.
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This Town Is Haunted, Rhiannon
The film from the new Welsh studio is The Mill Killers. It is a delightfully twisty turny, teaser of a film. Four friends, Rhiannon (Catrin Jones), Erin (Emma Stacey), Mia (Ellen Jane-Thomas), and Sam (Bethany Williams-Potter) are meeting up for a get together. Originally it was going to be in party central (Cardiff) but then a problem for one of the friends means that it’s either have the do at home (Milton) or not have it at all. To be honest, a look in the Friend’s Arms and you would probably decide that “not have it at all” isn’t such a bad idea. The bar is dark dismal and has only four men in it.
They are silent and huddled around a table in the corner. That is until Rhiannon walks in and the men in the corner act like they are in an old western…they turn and stare at her. Or do they? The original title was Scopophobia. Now scopophobia is an excessive fear of being stared at and, sure enough, Sam walks in and pop! Everything is back to normal. The girls settle in for as raucous a night as Milton can provide. Spoiler…this isn’t very raucous and they end up chatting about the times when they were young and wild. They had a little brush with shoplifting and a bigger brush with a wages theft. The spoils of that latter escapade are still hidden in the now deserted mill.
Not By Ghosts…By Ghost Stories
So they decide to go and retrieve their ill gotten gains. Surprise, surprise…this is when everything falls apart. There are all the aforementioned twists, turns, and teases as well as plenty of scares alongside an episodic B&W back story. The problem is that it all starts early in the film and I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun by giving things away. What I will say instead is that this is a surprisingly good film given that this is the first feature for writer/director Aled Owen, Catrin Jones, and Bethany Williams-Potter. In fact this is the first credit of any type for Bethany Williams-Potter! You wouldn’t think that Sam is being played by the least experienced of the four leads; I look forward to seeing more of her in the future.
So…good story, good direction, good performances, and fantastic soundtrack courtesy of Welsh musician GG Fearn. Is anything not wonderful with The Mill Killers? There are a couple of little niggles for me, but they are small and doubtless due to the size of the budget. One or two of the special effects were a bit clunky but the majority of them were spot on. Another thing that is probably only a fault picked up by odd bods like me. There is a scene of a fall from a balcony. It took 2.53seconds from topple to thud. That equates to a fall of 31.36m…about an 8-10 storey high rise. If that is the biggest problem then it can’t be too bad! The Mill Killers gets a digital release on 21st of April 2025 courtesy of Melyn Pictures and Miracle Media.
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