My Review of B&B (2017)

 

Written And Directed by Joe Ahearne

Marc (re Fred): "I'm staying here with my husband."

Josh: "If you want to call him that, I'm not going to stop you."

Marc: "You won't stop us expressing our love either."

I thought I'd add some gay themed horror into the mix and I went with this British movie that also had a very prominent Doctor Who connection. Yes, I'm talking about a certain actor.

In this movie, Paul McGann played the owner of the Christian B&B named St Jude's. His character Josh got sued by Londoners Marc (Tom Bateman) and Fred (Sean Teale) and now a year later had to take them in once again.

This was a situation that didn't exactly bring out the best in everyone. Josh was steadfast in his Christian beliefs, dismissing Marc and Fred's marriage as much as he could get away with. Marc in retaliation seemed to take immense pleasure in getting on Josh's nerves in return. I'm mostly on Marc's side here.

Fred on the other hand seemed determined not to make any waves but found himself caught in the crossfire of Josh's closeted teenage son, Paul (Callum Woodhouse) and a peeping tom Russian named Alexei (James Tratas). The Russian in general fired up a debate between Marc, Fred and even Josh.

Marc thought he was gay, Josh delighted in him making Marc and Fred uncomfortable and Fred thought he was dangerous. Out of the three, all of them were somewhat right. It did appear that Alexei had bad intentions with Paul but it wasn't until near the end of the movie that Alexei's real purpose had been revealed.

Having both Marc and Fred begrudgingly work with Josh in order to dispose of a body while also having the latter come to terms with his son's sexuality certainly drove all of their actions. There's a bittersweet ending to this movie. Both Marc and Fred realised that not everyone could be saved while Josh and Paul were confined to prisons of their own making.

- We got see the likes of Bing, Samsung and Vodafone referenced on screen by Fred at different points in the movie.

- The start of the movie had a donation box for legal fees and by the end, there was one for freeing Josh. 

- Joe Ahearne who directed and wrote this movie has also worked on Doctor Who.

- Chronology: Present day setting. Josh also got five years in prison while Paul was blackmailed into having a relationship with a woman.

As a horror thriller, B&B does move at a decent pace and managed not to outstay its welcome. There's nice chemistry between Tom Bateman and Sean Teale but I definitely felt they could've pushed it a bit more. Aside from a few kisses, Marc and Fred feel a bit chaste as a recently married couple. It's still a good watch though.

Rating: 7 out of 10