Obscure thriller from the UK. Original title: Turn Up the Sun!
Two couples arrive at countryside mansion they booked unknowingly together. They discover strange occurrences during stay.
It’s barely a feature-length film at 77 minutes. The IMDb score in 3.6, based on a mere 141 votes.
Ouch!
Two notes:
1. I had never heard of Aisling Franciosi until 24 hours ago, but she has appeared her twice since then. (She’s kinda-sorta naked in The Abandons.)
2. What happened to the film career of James McAvoy? Why would he agree to appear in a film like this? In 2007-2008, he was being nominated for BAFTA awards. Just a few years ago, he was still starring in major films.
Aisling Franciosi
Almudena Amor
McAvoy is still doing fine. He starred in the decently popular remake of Speak No Evil this year, a horror film from Europe. He’s always been pretty choosy with his projects, I think he’s just being a little more selective and less interested in blockbusters that’ll monopolize his time for months of shooting.
So, let me see if I understand your answer.
The question was – Why was a revered star appearing in a complete piece of grade-Z shit like this?
And your answer was – because he’s choosy with his projects.
Man, I’d hate to see the projects he turns down!! This film is basically the same caliber as a student film (and about as long).
I’m just guessing, but I’ll speculate that he took this role as a favor to somebody.
That said, I don’t think he has a niche that he can fit into right now. The man is physically fit and an outstanding actor. He has recently played both Macbeth and Cyrano on stage. But I think he’ll have to recalculate what sorts of film roles will work for him at this stage in life. He’s in his forties, but he looks 15 years older, and his height is allegedly 5’7″. I think he has probably entered the “Bond villain” stage of his film career.
He just directed his first film, with some good reviews, despite having James Corden in the cast, so maybe that’s his next direction.
Bingo. I just think Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with him anymore now that his boy next door looks are gone. He is part of that high profile Harry Potter audiobook. If all else fails, he can probably do B movie action films.
Well, specifically, he did Speak No Evil with Aisling, so he might have done this with her as a favor.
But more generally, he’s a British actor. Michael Caine said it best: “In Britain, an actor is like a plumber. You get a call, they say ‘we’ve got this job’, and you say, ‘well, this is my rate to do that job’, and if they can pay your rate, you take the job.” Quality doesn’t matter, if they pay what you’re worth, it’s a job.