It is probably one of my biggest bug bears when I watch a film after gauging a sense of the plot from an initial read and one of the films which featured in the London Frightfest 2025 had something that promised a lot but took way too much time to get to where it should have got to.
Directed by Gerard Johnson, who co-writes (with Austin Collings) – ODYSSEY, which featured at the start of the final day of the 2025 event in the main screen, spends way too much time in unnecessary character establishment and development to really make much of an impact.
For what seemed like an age, I felt I was watching a Ken Loach drama rather than a tightly-written noir that focuses on Natasha Flynn (Rebecca Calder), a London-based estate agent with what seems to be a business in denial as much as she is with her various addictions. We see her taking a new intern under her wing whilst dealing with a number of clients out to get a decent place to stay.
This is passable, but it is not the focus of the story, which eventually takes shape in (too much) time with the kidnapping of another estate agent who has been kidnapped by two loan sharks, Will and Dan who are keen for her to pay off a debt and secure her future, something she has been trying to do with a merger with another company. Another friend has loaned her money which her husband and her want back and another colleague is working on an app.
When problems mount, who does Natasha turn to? A mysterious figure and gun-toting gangster called ‘The Viking’ (Mikael Persbrandt) who conveniently turns up to have her back and perhaps save the day….
Now, all the elements are in place here. Sadly, they haven’t been exploited or utilised to their full potential. Once the film does get going, you do perk up in a film that leads onto a climax like a cross between SKYFALL and STRAW DOGS. It is just a shame that the droll first third-to-half of the film was not more economical in its’ execution. In the hands of Danny Boyle (a la SHALLOW GRAVE), this film could have been elevated to the level of a cult film.
Alas, this is not that film.
ODYSSEY played as part of the London Frightfest 2025. For info and tickets for future events, please go to: