Review of Fantasist, The

Introduction

Robin Hardy`s The Fantasist (to give this little-known 1986 movie its full title) starts its life on DVD as a bit of a curio - it`s an 80`s Irish thriller.

That same curiosity gets ramped up to cat-killing proportions when you make the connection that this Robin Hardy is indeed the same Robin Hardy behind the seminal 70`s thriller/chiller half-breed `The Wicker Man`.

After leaving the film industry for a number of years (apparently after conflict with industry powers-that-be over his afore-mentioned directorial debut), he returned to the filmmaking fold for this, an adaptation of Patrick McGinley`s novel `Goosefoot` - and to this day his only other feature film.

Beginning with young, country-bred lass Patricia making her way to Dublin for that big city experience, The Fantasist sees a crazily poetic killer loose on the streets of Ireland`s capital. Dubbed "The Phone Call Killer" by the media, he strikes up lengthy correspondence with his victims over the telephone before murdering them. As Patricia settles in to her new life, sparking up a friendship with the eccentric married American in the apartment below, the killer sets his sights on her. It all begins with a phone call.

Video

Anamorphic 1.85:1

A little grainy, not particularly sharp, with a few minor specks of dirt and print blemishes here and there.

Did someone whisper "VHS"? Nope, it`s better than that. Not by leaps and bounds, mind.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0

A fairly weak mix, the dialogue is often annoyingly hushed, while the music and spot effects are a little loud in comparison.

It`s particularly evident if you feed the audio source through a Dolby Pro Logic II decoder, with irritating flicking up and down of the volume required. Saying that, there are no real benefits of running the 2.0 through PLII, as the DVD is void of any scenes which would benefit from the faux surround sound.

Typically, as much as you may need them at times, there are no subtitles on the disc - a sure sign of it`s budget intentions.

Features

We`re treated to a fantastically of-its-time 80s trailer.

Conclusion

While The Fantasist doesn`t feel compelled to go that extra mile to disprove Hardy was a one-trick-pony/one-hit-wonder combo, it`s still not a bad film, and certainly worth a few quid of any thriller fan`s cash.

Directed with an assured, Hollywood-esque flair - throwing in thumping pop songs and the odd wailing guitar whenever the opportunity presents itself, it seems some things are indicative of 80s filmmaking, irrespective of country of origin. As Americanised as it feels at times, there`s a typically British subtlety to the macabre undercurrent brought over from Hardy`s debut; something most American stalk-n-slash thrillers of the era severely lacked. Continuing to go against the grain of the format, there`s no real violence past the opening ten minutes where we`re treated to some rather tasteless flash cuts between the murderer getting to grips with his victim (the only on-screen killing) and the carving of a bird at the dinner table.

There`s a hint of some laughable, dinner-theater overacting here and there and the ending is plagerised from a thousand other thrillers, in turn copied right out of the `Who`s The Killer?` handbook, set up with some heavy-handed `incidental` clues, blink and you`ll miss tells and red herrings galore. But it`s the purveyor of decent intentions, and the peculiar characters with their peculiar fetishes are quirky enough to keep you interested. There`s also a mildly diverting young catholics vs sexual repression theme that pops up now and again, although it`s something that was presumably dealt with in more depth in the novel on which the film is based.

More-or-less a fairly straightforward Irish thriller that doesn`t feel particularly Irish, mostly thanks to a proclivity to bend towards convention rather than do something different. Still, at its budget price point, it just might be rude not to give it a look-in.