The Latent Image
A log cabin in the woods, a place to be alone and unreachable, for Ben to be undisturbed as he works on his novel, a thriller inspired by unexplained disappearances in the region, working on a manual typewriter so as to be physically connected to the page even as he cuts himself off from everything else, not even listening to the voicemail from his boyfriend Jamie, falling so deeply into his imagination that he scares himself.
Waking from a nightmare, Ben finds that he is not alone, a man with him in the cabin who gives a cursory apology, saying his car broke down, that he has stayed there before and knew where the spare key was and entered without realising it was occupied, then passing out on the sofa before Ben can gather himself to object or set the boundaries on which this unexpected nocturnal visitation will operate.
A tense two-hander starring Joshua Tonks as Ben and Jay Clift as the unnamed stranger, The Latent Image is directed by Alexander McGregor Birrell from a script co-written with Tonks, with William Tippery’s distant Jamie only glimpsed in the lingering memories and fond imaginings of Ben, layers of bad dreams, waking nightmares and hungry fantasies streaming through his mind as he tries to write a narrative both pleasing and authentic out of events he cannot control.
The man a stranger, an unknown quantity who has intruded into his personal space and now lies asleep before him, stripped naked and sweating beneath his tattoos and bruises, to Ben he represents danger and desire, both elements he needs to work into his novel, a tangible connection to the repressed raw emotion he needs, an experience he must taste before he can describe it.
Awake, the stranger becomes evasive, keeping a distance between them which Ben longs to bridge even as he pretends otherwise, trying to play it cool even as he invites him to stay, sipping wine as he drinks whisky, one repressed and the other biding his time, the two of them acting out scenes from the novel, exploring possibilities which become violent encounters of close physical proximity.
Ben flirting through role play, possibly too eager to allow himself to be dominated, to offer himself as victim, there is much which reminds of Deathtrap though considerably more modern and explicit than Ira Levin’s charming and elaborately constructed parlour drama would dare, The Latent Image playing games with the characters and the viewers even as they toy with each other, the unpredictable muse and the artist who longs to be tortured by his passions.
The Latent Image premiered at London’s Soho Horror Film Festival and is currently playing the festival circuit including the Fargo Moorhead LGBT Film Festival
