Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Elfie Hopkins has been a long time coming – finally getting a cinema release here in the UK, it’s a sweet-hearted piece that doesn’t really work as a horror film, but never the less has a massive amount of charm.
Elfie Hopkins (Jaime Winstone) is the local slacker…and wannabe private detective. With her best friend Dylan (Aneurin Barnard) she meddles in the lives of the villagers, much to their annoyance. When new neighbours the Gammons arrive, she’s convinced that she’s finally found a genuine case to investigate. The Gammons are odd – a little too perfect. The rest of the village seems enamoured with them, especially the family patriarch (Rupert Evans), a charming yet sinister travel agent. When people start disappearing, Elfie must pit herself against the murderous and ever-so-insane Gammons in order to protect the people of her village.
Elfie Hopkins might best be described as quirky. At its core, this is a film about an outcast trying to find her place in the world. A traumatic past means she holds people at bay, even the few friends she has. Hardly an original core to a film, but there is a great deal to be said for Jaime Winstone’s impressive turn as Elfie. Elfie’s the sort of waster that, in real life, would annoy the living daylights out of me. Superficially, she has a bad attitude, a lack of sensible motivation and doesn’t care who she irritates to get her own way. However, Winstone imbues Elfie with an inherent vulnerability that is clear even without the script’s more literal moments that spell out her trauma for the viewer.
Equally, the supporting cast help make Elfie Hopkins good-quirky and not annoying-quirky. Aneurin Barnard is, frankly, adorable as Elfie’s enamoured best friend Dylan. Rupert Evans as Mr. Gammon gives a deliciously sinister performance, equally as convincing as the impressive new man in town and as murderous patriarch. Will Payne plays the sociopathic Elliot Gammon with a rage-fuelled glee, and, if I may indulge, is particularly easy on the eye. Most revelatory, perhaps, is Gwyneth Keyworth as the utterly bonkers Ruby Gammon. Now, for the sake of full disclosure: Gwyneth is from the town I live in. Regardless of any regional bias (the film was shot just down the road, afterall), though, her performance as Ruby is simultaneously cute, alluring, and downright psychotic, marking her out as a particularly promising young performer. Rounding off the cast are the likes of Richard Harrington and Kimberly Nixon, who are both memorable but sadly under-used.
Lest I over-saturate this review with the word ‘quirky’, I’d best describe the look of the film as thoroughly…peculiar (thank you, thesaurus). Its production design is a sight to behold. Elfie’s bedroom is a particular delight, a sense of her character is found pinned to her walls and beaming through coloured lamp-shades. The costumes are glorious, particularly the Gammons’ vintage-inspired, part-goth look. The village could be anywhere, and yet, looks as though it exists in a bubble of its own.
Where the film sadly falls down is, perhaps crucially, as a horror film. Elfie Hopkins isn’t really a horror film, as far as I’m concerned, and should never have tried to be one. The entire film lacks suspense, and were it not for the fact that it’s been billed as a horror film, this wouldn’t really matter. However, as it stands, the somewhat corpse-strewn climax of the film feels wholly ineffective, and furthermore unnecessary. It’s perhaps a little remiss of me to say so when reviewing the film for a horror-loving website, but I enjoyed Elfie Hopkins when it wasn’t showing me serial killers and cannibals and attempting to be creepy.
That being said, I still found Elfie Hopkins to be thoroughly entertaining and thoroughly likeable as a film, and would recommend it with the advice that it shouldn’t really be thought of as a horror film. Ultimately, it has what a great deal of modern horror films fatally lack – characters that I actually cared about – and as such is well worth a watch.
Elfie Hopkins is released to UK cinemas on 20th April, from Kaleidoscope.