On Edge (2001/II)

Director:

Frazer Lee

Writers:

Christopher Fowler (short story "On Edge")
Frazer Lee (writer)

Genre:

Horror | Short

Plot Keywords:

Patient | Dentist

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Doug Bradley	...	Dr. Matthews
Charley Boorman	...	Peter Thurlow
Beth Murray	...	Receptionist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Justin Baldwin
Christopher Fowler

Runtime:

15 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

UK:15

Filming Locations:

Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Robber Baron Productions Ltd.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Red Lines (2002)

Soundtrack:

Cycles of Abuse

review from Roxane Hentz

I laughed the hell out of me....and today I just went to the dentist so it was perfect! I was disappointed as we could not really see the face of the guy on the net...I hope we can see it perfectly on a real cinema screen.

I like the doctor guy (Doug 'Pinhead from Hellraiser' Bradley)... The fact that the 12 first minutes are really slow in the scenario, that we could never see the face of the patient once the dentist took over with his monologue, the weird logic of his speech and the end gives a real Hitckock atmosphere added with violence & humour. This is totally (Frazer) as a creator. Hard Core!

Concerning the construction of the movie/scenario: Intro: the disco and the music: Great- dark!2 minutes- metal- hard core (Frazer's band Self Destructive Nature) : announce the corpus of the movie without explaining why. The fear is not there yet. * Introduction of personnages: (2 minutes)- Total new environment-

whiter & slower- Introduction of the general individual fear (uncomfortable- doubt) of the audience: a dentist office!!!!but balanced by the apparent kindness of dentist and the relaxing stated of the patient.

* Monologue & dentist actions: (6 minutes) Intimist- rhythm given by the voice of the dentist & his excitement: it grows minutes after minutes. At the opposite side: Passive intervention of the patient. Almost absent of the crazzyness of the dentist. Maybe the speech could have been shorter (I think you could have used one or two minutes of that to something else as describing better at the end the disco). The laser tool is too funny!!!

Then, the patient awakes- The dentist leaves- end of the intimity:

Dentist-patient

* The result (2 minutes): Discovery-the audience now see what really happened like the secretary who succeed in entering in the room (her play is not really convincing and does not entirely satisfy his role of being an intermediary-bridge between the movie and the audience)and the patient itself; (the result of the dentist actions was expected- the poster of the movie & the laser utilisation...That kills your face, man!

* Chute ((2 last minutes- End): the disco place, the music, and the dentist which finally links the Disco (intro) and the story. The dentist sitting at the bar, watching around... Very American Standard..... In your movie he is only an observer in the disco. He does not act at all. I would have like to see him in the same situation than the patient...(parabole situation); That would have been a scary psychopat! I would have love to see something different as a devil girl with piercing nastly moving around the dentist.... and see a Sado-Maso relationship installing between the 2 of them (this time: Maso is the dentist acting passively - he undergoes the situation this time / sado is the girl), or something like that.

The goal would be anyway to see the dentist's behaviour (action) in his inspirational environement......but I believe you have only 15 minutes...

General: finally not scary, but upsetting.