Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Yvonne Orji, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel, Chris Shields, Marlowe Percival, Laine MacNeil, Clive Holloway, Doralynn Mui, Kaitlyn Bernard, Jared Ager-Foster, Mellany Barros, Chelah Horsdal, Luvia Petersen, Jarrett Carlington, Peter Bundic, Bzhaun Rhoden, Braeden Shrimpton, Eva Day.

A film should not have to rely on age or a viewer’s monocled taste to be seen, and perhaps admired for what it brings to the screen, like any art form the more people that see it, the more perhaps life can be understood, the snapshot of thought is not what we ignore, but what we are willing to embrace.

Of course, such action is arguably impossible, we don’t have enough hours in the day to fit everything in, and because of that regulation on our time, some moments of genius pass us by, never to be experienced, never to be receive the applause of the Spontaneous on-looker or the desire of the time-starved who wish to be involved and hopefully entertained.

Brian Duffield’s adaption of Aaron Starmer’s novel Spontaneous is such a case in point, a film directed and with the appeal of a younger generation and their concerns of not being able to control the mysterious events unfolding around them, the seemingly casual departure of their lives in one big and largely graphic bang, but there is much for any discerning cinema and film lover to discover within; not so much a teen slasher flick which has been over produced and cliché ridden, but one of more cynicism, of truth in which the way the teenagers on the verge of American adulthood are taken from their comfort zone and lack of responsibility and fed to the machine.

The enigma of Spontaneous is that it doesn’t pretend, or ache to be in the same realm of previous films that deal with the teenage psyche, films such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, for this film digs deeper, is not afraid of the rebellion or the care, and doesn’t rely on the notion of the protagonist being human or otherworldly.

It is this one point of dramatic change that see the film take on a greater sense of unpredictability and therefore carnage, that other films in its genre, the randomness of the act is unexplained, free of narrative and back story, so much so that it is a highly original piece of film making.

Central to the premise of the film is the performance of Katherine Landford as Mara, in a genre where women either must be seen as requiring rescue or being considered reclusive enough to be ignored by the plot line, Mara is neither of those things, she is out of control and acts unprompted as the mystery unfolds. Even in the grip of despair at losing those around her, her fear is fearless, courageous even, and her attitude is one to embrace.

Spontaneous is a film that might be considered as one that destroys the mythic trope insisted upon when it comes to the idea of the slasher flick, one that is not only old, tired, and in many ways undesirable in a world undergoing change, but one of novelty, of original thought behind the scare, and one that is challenging and enjoyable to watch.

Ian D. Hall