The Winter Lake
The sad bounty of a windswept field in the rural west of Ireland, teenager Tom finds a muddied sheep skull washed up near the edge of the winter lake, another trophy to add to the collection of found treasures which adorn his bedroom in the family home he has returned to with his mother, a forced relocation to the farmhouse empty since the death of his great grandfather whose body lay undiscovered until it was noticed the animals were starving.
Elaine is angry with her son, justifiably but perhaps unfairly; it was his behaviour which meant they had to move and he is far from repentance or even being helpful around the house, but nor can she claim to be the perfect mother, a single parent who had him too young and mixes her pills and booze too readily, who mocks him when she sees him taking an interest in a girl.
The daughter of their neighbour Ward, another single parent, Holly is no angel, but she is pretty and the only person who has shown Tom any kindness, nor is there much else to occupy the mind and body in a one-trick dead horse farm town where misdeeds best forgotten are regurgitated by the seasonal swelling of the underground river as it fills the winter lake.
Two broken families whose adjacent properties border that chilly and treacherous body of water, The Winter Lake is directed by Phil Sheerin from a script by David Turpin, a mystery thriller of damaged people resentful at the lot life has given them, their limited options governed by their pasts, how little they have to lose now determining how far they are willing to go.
A misfit who carries a knife, the sharp blade the only thing he can depend on in his life, Anson Boon is Tom while Charlie Murphy is Elaine, trying to juggle the responsibility of a violent child and making ends meet when she can hardly look after herself, and across the field are Michael McElhatton and Emma Mackey as Ward and Holly, both too forward, too presumptuous, to swiftly insinuating themselves into the lives of strangers.
Built around only four lead characters, two adults and two teenagers, each of them needing a lifeline to pull them to shore which they are as likely to refuse out of sheer spite, there are only a limited number of ways that the currents of The Winter Lake can flow, but what it lacks in twists it makes up for in performance and sheer menace, a lonely outpost where the law is what the locals lay down and there is nobody to turn to who might offer sympathy or help.
The Winter Lake will be released on digital platforms from Monday 15th March
