Retrospective: Fatigue (2003)

Fatigue (2003)
aka Set Up
A film review by Tristán Harvey E. White
Copyright 2006 Tristán Harvey E. White

4 out of 5 stars

Cast: Mark Faiers, Chris Dawson, Sophie Coryndon
Directed by Michael Barnes
Writing credits: Micharl Barnes, Mark Faiers


Although this film is, at the time of writing, already three years old,
it never got a proper cinema release but has just come out on DVD. It
therefore deserves a little more attention.

Whilst everyone and their dog has seen British horror film SHAUN OF THE
DEAD (2004), it may come to a surprise to some that this millenium has
so far produced some quality British horror, which has largely gone
unnoticed.

Whilst films such as PENETRATION ANGST (2003) and the excellent
LOVESICK: SICK LOVE (2004), both British productions by Wolfgang Büld,
have had some exposure thanks to fanzines and magazines such as
"Bizarre", this intriguing film FATIGUE (2003) by Michael Barnes has had
hardly any exposure at all. No cinema release, and barely any reviews.
Time to put that right.

The DVD has recently been released here in the UK with the title SET UP,
which is a strange choice since there are already several films called
SET UP in the English language, but just this film is called FATIGUE. It
took a while to find, but I'm glad that I did.

The story is set mainly in Wales, and centres around Mitchell Willow
(Mark Faiers), a petty criminal who begins to run errands for the
sinister Eddie Heaver (Chris Dawson). Not knowing the exact extent of
what he is getting involved in, he gets involved in a set up and seeks
help from his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Sophie Coryndon), who plays her role
superbly.

There are a number of twists and turns in this film, it is sufficiently
gruesome to please the gore fans out there, and whilst the film is
occasionally let down by far too many coincidences and clichés - not
another fairground scene, please! - the ending is so original and so
utterly disgusting that one has to take one's hat off to Barnes and
Faiers for this story.

A shame that the sound quality and, it has to be said, the acting, is
really at times quite poor. Occasionally I had to rewind just to try and
catch some of the dialogue, and this makes the film appear more amateur
than it really is. Clearly though this is very low budget. However, one
should not forget that none of these actors are professionals; in fact,
this is the first film for practically every single cast and crew
member. But one wonders what this film could have been had there been
more budget, and had the producers been able to hire more professional
actors and sound mixers. Because as far as the story goes, give or take
a few ridiculous coincidences, this could have been a classic à la SHAUN
OF THE DEAD. Sadly, it has practically fallen into complete anonymity.

Check this little film out. But remember that the DVD release has the
film titled SET UP, for some reason best known to the distributors.

Tristán Harvey E. White