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Thomas (Kevin Cordell) is the host of the TV show Hard Streets UK,
a show that presents its audience with unusual people living in ordinary
UK neighbourhoods each week, and on screen, Thomas comes across as an
open-minded and good natured man, while behind the scenes he's just a
money and fame loving bigot and racist, so when he and his crew (Sam
Mason-Bell, Jackson Batchelor) pay a visit to a trio of gipsy-witches, he
goes into a full tirade before even arriving at their place. However, he
does a good job as an interviewer, soon easing the witch mother Diana
(Suki Jones) and her daughters, open-minded Kate (Jessica Hunt) and timid
Phoebe (Kayla Charlton) into giving him a good story, even if it makes him
throw an extra helping of abuse towards his crew behind the scenes. He
even agrees to stay the night at the witches' house while the crew
retreats to a nearby hotel. That night, he gets a little "too
friendly" with young Phoebe, which his crew captures on hidden camera
- to have some kind of leverage on Thomas, whose sexually inappropriate
behaviour has been known for a while. Thing is, the witches learn about
this as well, and - well, their magic is real ... Presented as
the raw footage of a pseudo TV show, this movie of course walks the
well-trodden path of found footage mockumentary both narratively and
aesthetically, but is brought to life by a bunch of colourful and
eccentric characters, starting with Kevin Cordell's charismatic yet
horrible Thomas, through all three witches to the crewmembers with their
own agenda, and it makes a good job revealing its actual horrors only very
gradually while still keeping things interesting. And the scene where
Thomas has his way with Phoebe is absolutely unnerving, even though (or
maybe because) the camera is absolutely static and shows little. Worth a
look for sure.
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