Writer Ben (Joshua Tonks) heads to a cabin for a break from his relationship with Jamie (William Tippery) and to start writing his latest novel. Battling with writer’s block, Ben is surprised when a strange man (Jay Clift) arrives at the cabin in need of medical assistance. Intrigued by the stranger, Ben invites him to stay a few days and finds his new companion a source of inspiration for the book he’s writing. As the two men spend time together, and the sexual tension begins to rise, Ben finds the lines between fiction and reality beginning to blur.
Starting off its life as a short story, ‘The Latent Image’ has been expanded into a full-length feature by writers Alexander McGregor Birrell and Joshua Tonks. With Birrell behind the camera and Tonks taking on the lead role of Ben, it’s clear that this has been a passion project for the two creatives. Essentially a two-hander, that could very easily translate into a stage play, ‘The Latent Image’ is a slow-burning thriller that takes inspiration from similar entries in the genre and explores the meta-approach that modern horror films such as the ‘Scream’ franchise has popularised.
The first thing to note about the film is that is really does live up to the slow-burn part of slow-burn thriller. Despite running at a lean 83 minutes, the film is in no rush to deliver a fast-paced story and for some viewers, that’s going to be a turn-off. Instead, the film takes time to establish that Ben is at a crossroads in his relationship and the arrival of the stranger, known only as The Man, stirs something inside of him that he doesn’t expect. Putting logic and his own safety completely to one side, Ben begins to imagine his new companion as the villain of his novel. It’s not long before The Man is willingly playing along with that role, entering the two into a dangerous psycho-sexual push-and-pull, even though The Man appears to be straight.
‘The Latent Image’ has a decent story at its core but some of the creative decisions unfortunately let it down. If, and it’s a big if, you can get on board with Ben letting a complete stranger who is quite clearly dodgy stay with him in an isolated cabin, you may be willing to go along with the story. You could perhaps argue that Ben is in a spiral of self-destruction, fantasising about The Man while trying to understand how he feels about his current relationship, but the problem is the film doesn’t dig deep enough. Instead it moves into abstract territory with Ben often acting out scenes which are revealed to be in his head and not in reality.
Joshua Tonks as Ben and Jay Clift as The Man are decent enough in their roles. Neither actor wows but that’s largely in part to the script, which doesn’t give either much material to play with. The characters are too thinly drawn and their interactions stilted. We don’t get under their skin to understand their motivations, instead having to make up our minds about them on a very surface level. When the threat level cranks up, it’s hard to know who to root for as the film follows familiar beats without adding much depth or originality into the mix.
‘The Latest Image’ is clearly made by a team that has a love for home invasion films, and that shows, but a lack of a strong story means that it pales in comparison to those films it’s drawn inspiration from. I get the feeling the film-makers were going for a gay twist on ‘Misery’ but ‘The Latent Image’ never hits those heights. Limited by an underwritten script and lacking in truly surprising moments, the film is perfectly watchable but sadly nothing remarkable.
Cast: Joshua Tonks, Jay Clift, William Tippery Director: Alexander McGregor Birrell Writers: Alexander McGregor Birrell & Joshua Tonks Certificate: Unrated Duration: 83 mins Released by: Cinephobia Releasing Release date: 7th September 2023
