''Retreat'' is a 2011 British horror-

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

and the directorial debut of former film editor Carl Tibbets. The film stars

Cillian Murphy Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short an ...

Jamie Bell Andrew James Matfin Bell (born 14 March 1986) is an English actor and dancer. He rose to prominence for his debut role in ''Billy Elliot'' (2000), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming one of the youngest ...

, and

Thandiwe Newton Melanie Thandiwe Newton ( ; born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress. Newton has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for ...

as three people isolated from the rest of the world on a remote island. Two of them are told they are survivors of a fatal airborne disease that is sweeping over the entire world. However, their induced isolation may be the result of a lie, and it may be that they are being held at the whim of a madman.

Plot

London architect Martin Kennedy (Cillian Murphy) and his unhappy journalist wife Kate (Thandiwe Newton) often visit a small, remote, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland called Blackholme Island for their holiday retreats. The only dwelling on the island, Fairweather Cottage, is seasonally operated by the owner Doug from the mainland and only reachable by ferry. After previously suffering a miscarriage, Kate's relationship with Martin has become tense, and in an effort to rekindle their marriage they decide on a return visit to the island. A few nights into their stay, the generator in the cottage explodes, injuring Martin's arm and leaving them without electricity. They use the

CB radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

, their only source of communication to the mainland, to call Doug, who ferries out to help them. Kate spends the next day waiting at the jetty for Doug to arrive, but to no avail. Later a mysterious man in green combat fatigues washes up on the island, bloodied and half-conscious. When he comes round, he identifies himself as a soldier, Private Jack Coleman (Jamie Bell). He tells Martin and Kate that there has been an

outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

of an airborne disease, Argromoto Flu, codenamed R1N16, which started in South America and has spread over the entire world in the time-span of a few weeks. The disease is incurable and highly contagious, attacking the respiratory system and causing the victims to choke on blood with a 100% fatality rate. Jack says that the military have lost control, and are now advising civilians to seal themselves up in their homes and not allow anybody access. With only static now coming from the CB radio, Martin decides to play it safe and help Jack, who aggressively takes command and boards up the door and windows. Over the next few days, Jack becomes increasingly strange and erratic, and his intimidating behaviour begins to disturb the couple even further. They suspect that the virus may be a lie and that Jack is insane. When Kate asks him if he is married, he tells her his wife died of R1N16 and he becomes aggressive and threatening. Martin and Kate decide to leave the cottage and take their chances outside, but Jack refuses to let them, forcing them into the bedroom at gunpoint and locking them in. Martin sneaks outside through a skylight, finding the bodies of Doug and his wife at the pier, killed by gunshot. Using Doug's hunting shotgun, Martin returns to the cottage and gets the upper hand on Jack. However, just as Kate begins to tie Jack's hands behind his back, Martin suddenly begins coughing up blood; it appears the Argromoto Flu is very real and he is infected. Kate is forced to shoot her husband dead with the shotgun, to spare him a slow and agonising death. Forced at gunpoint, Jack reveals to Kate that he was experimented on at a military compound and released without anyone having realized he was a carrier of R1N16. Jack had infected his wife, killing her, and fled to Blackholme Island to quarantine himself where the couple found him. Jack reveals that the CB radio worked all along, and he had just changed the settings so that Kate and Martin would not be able to reach anyone. Jack fixes the CB radio, and the military broadcast on it claims that the soldiers have a vaccine against the virus. Jack tells Kate that the military are lying; there is no vaccine, and the military would kill them both if they were discovered. Kate does not believe him and, angered by the possibility that Martin could have been saved, she shoots Jack dead. As she attempts to leave the island in the boat with Martin's body, a military helicopter flies over and she is killed by a sniper who shoots her in the head.

Cast

as Martin Kennedy *

as Kate Kennedy (credited as Thandie Newton) *

as Pvt. Jack Coleman *

Jimmy Yuill James Evander Munro Yuill (born 13 February 1956) is a Scottish actor. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and later joined the Renaissance Theatre Company. He has appeared in many of Kenneth Branagh's films, most recently as Ed ...

as Doug, the boat ferryman and owner of Fairweather Cottage

Release

''Retreat'' premiered at the

Fantasia Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

on July 18, 2011 and received a limited release in the United Kingdom and the United States respectively on October 12 and 14 2011.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a score of . Bloody Disgusting rated it 4.5/5 stars and praised the intense, chilling atmosphere and plot twists.

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' rated it 3/5 stars and called it "a neat, tense thriller from a first time director that provides a decent role for Jamie Bell". John Anderson of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote, "A potential menage a trois of terror is served up as rather weak tea in ''Retreat'', which fails to make its alleged suspense, thrills or even its mist-enshrouded landscapes particularly plausible." Neil Smith of ''

Total Film ''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched ...

'' rated it 3/5 stars and called it "tense if rather monotonously bleak". Mark Adams of '' Screen Daily'' wrote, "An unrelentingly moody and claustrophobic three-handed thriller, ''Retreat'' is an assured and nicely staged debut from Carl Tibbetts that might feel all rather familiar but manages to keep the story suitably unpredictable and nicely paced." Damon Wise of ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' wrote that the performances make up for the story. David Nussair of Reel Film Reviews wrote that "''Retreat'' inevitably (and lamentably) establishes itself as a generic and hopelessly uninvolving thriller that grows more and more tedious as it progresses." Scott Weinberg of

Fearnet Fearnet was an American digital cable television network, website and video on demand service owned by Comcast. The network specialized in horror entertainment programming through a mix of acquired and original series, and feature films. Backgr ...

concluded that the film is "certainly more engaging than its basic premise might imply".

References

External links