Sightseers (2012)

"Did you bring the sleeping bags and s'mores fix-ins?"

In the DVD bonus materials for the 2012 movie Sightseers, the principal actors and director claim they made a black comedy. That wasn’t how it came across. What I found was a character study of two very maladjusted, dangerous people.

Chris and Tina recently began dating. At the start, we see them packing a caravan. Against the wishes of her judgmental mother, they’ve decided to go camping across rural England.

Though outwardly each seems fairly normal, it’s not long before it’s clear they’re odd birds. Just beneath the surface each harbors seething rage.

We’re not told much about their backgrounds. She lives at home with a controlling mother, and works with animals. She’s conspicuously insecure, and a little too eager to please Chris. His acceptance nourishes her more than it would if she possessed more confidence.

Chris is tormented by perceived petty slights. He interprets a man littering at a trolley museum as a personal affront. The fact that he’s powerless to do anything about it beyond calling the litterbug on his actions only heightens his resentment. When the man not only refuses to clean up his mess, but taunts Chris about it, Chris gets his revenge by “accidently” backing over the man with the caravan.

So it begins.

At campgrounds, on hiking trails, while visiting pencil museums (???) and the like, Tina and Chris bump in to various people who annoy them to varying degrees. They come to realize that, rather than being inconvenienced by such things as a stranger’s requests to pick up after their dog at a public park, they can simply off him instead.

As they travel around to different locales, the bodies pile up. Someone’s too loud in a restaurant, or not polite enough by the campfire. Grounds enough for Chris and Tina to nix them. Initially Chris does most of the dirty work, but as time passes Tina gets in on the act. He approves of her violence, which only validates her, and provides her much-needed esteem.

I’ve never seen either actor (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, who were members of a British comedy troupe) before, which does lend a sense of creepy mystery. The pair are mundane, nondescript, middle-class nobodies. I suppose this is where the comedy is supposed to come in. The movie's tag line talks about murder having "a ginger beard" and "knitted jumper." Kinda amusing, but not so much jocular. 

With eerie music, long silences and awkward character interactions, director Ben Wheatley (Kill List; Down Terrace) imbues Sightseers with a palpable uncomfortable (not comedic) mood. Scenes of goofy, stilted small talk between strangers at tourist spots feel right. I've been on those vacations with my parents, rolling my eyes when they blurted out what they thought were funny rejoinders in response to tour guides’ questions, and then wanted to visit yet another battle field. That wasn’t funny, either.