Compulsion begins with a long, snaking POV tracking shot; we see only a pair of gloved hands as the camera enters a gated residence, scales a wall, climbs through a window, and begins stalking through a sharply appointed condominium. We glimpse a man enter the dark room, unaware of this mysterious visitor, and begin to undress on his way into the shower. The camera creeps closer and closer, and suddenly lunges at the now naked man, the gloved hands slashing him repeatedly with a sword of some sort. We finally get a glimpse of the assailant in a mirror, a buxom figure clad in skin-tight leather from head to toe, complete with full mask. She surveys the bloody carnage she has just caused and casually flees the scene.
With this wild opening sequence, co-writer and director Neil Marshall has placed us squarely in the realm of giallo-throwback, or perhaps a De Palma riff. As Compulsion unravels its twisty narrative, it also becomes a sort of soft-core ‘90s throwback, like one of those straight-to-video Shannon Tweed thrillers that used to litter the neighborhood video store. This is Marshall’s fourth collaboration with actress and co-writer Charlotte Kirk, his real-life partner and muse in low-budget genre exercises, and while it’s heretofore been a bumpy road, with Compulsion the duo has finally achieved that which once seemed entirely out of reach — they’ve made a pretty decent little movie.
As the local police investigate the gruesome murder scene, we are also introduced to Diana (Kirk) and her boyfriend/partner-in-crime Reese (Zach McGowan). They are in the midst of a quarrel when they take notice of Evie (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) moving into the lavish estate next door to them. Evie has arrived in Malta to stay at her father-in-law’s home, and Diana smells an opportunity. Reese owes money to some very unsavory types, and Evie’s vacation spot just happens to contain a safe with untold riches inside. The plan is simple: seduce Evie, gain her trust, and then rob her. At least, it seems simple; Reese is an abusive wildcard, and there’s still the matter of the masked killer on the loose.
Kirk is, generously speaking, a limited actress. And while all of her work with Marshall has some redeeming qualities, no one would confuse them for “good” movies. She simply doesn’t have the range to play a medieval peasant, a tough-as-nails military commander, or a quick-witted, sharp-tongued criminal mastermind. But the screenplay for Compulsion (co-written by Kirk) very much plays to her strengths; here, she’s outgoing and ostentatiously sexual, and the idea of play-acting a fake identity is baked into the premise. Her gradual seduction of Evie is nicely modulated, and their burgeoning relationship begins to threaten the insecure Reese, who wants to take more direct, violent action to get into the safe. Eventually, the women will be united via a dark secret of their own, and the film goes all-in on the co-mingling of sex and violence.
It’s all unabashedly titillating and gratuitous, a cheap version of a Joe Eszterhas thriller in an era when such things are extremely out of fashion. The Maltese locations are lovely to look at, and provide some ready-made production value that relieves some pressure from the film’s obvious low-= budget (curiously, Compulsion seems to have been produced by the Malta government, which seems like an odd bid for a tourism ad). And Marshall gets to go hog-wild with a few extremely grisly murder set pieces, fully indulging the genre gorehound toolbox we all know he has (and used to love). It all builds up to a ludicrous twist ending, an absurd rug pull that is as gleefully dumb as it is immensely satisfying. It might not rise anywhere close to the level of Dog Soldiers or The Descent, but Compulsion feels like a step back in the right direction for Marshall.
DIRECTOR: Neil Marshall; CAST: Zach McGowan, Anna-Maria Sieklucka, Charlotte Kirk; DISTRIBUTOR: Saban Films; IN THEATERS/STREAMING: September 19; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 45 min.
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