Deathwatch

A strange hybrid of horror and supernatural war-flick, Deathwatch is only notable for the eagerly-awaited silver-screen return of Jamie Bell, the extremely ordinary British teenage actor whose role in the extremely ordinary Billy Elliot inexplicably captured world imagination two years ago, in case you’ve all justifiably forgotten.

The plot: in 1917 on the Western Front, young Charlie Shakespeare (Bell) follows his unit out of the trenches and over the top. Stumbling through thick fog, they set up camp only to find themselves preyed upon by an evil spirit which feeds off the carnage of the war.

It soon becomes apparent very early on that Death Watch, perhaps a fine idea in the first place, flounders sadly without the benefit of remotely accomplished direction or a script worthy of the name. In fact, debut director Bassett frequently seems to lose control of the action/horror sequences completely, while his strikingly young cast struggle valiantly with the clunky dialogue.

Bell tries his damnedest, but actors ten times as accomplished would have a very hard time with material like this.

The surprisingly numerous repressed serial killers who lap up every film of this nature will doubtless find enough guts’n’gore in Deathwatch to please them no end, but the rest of us can plan our lives safely without it.