FRIGHTFEST UK 2024: "7 KEYS" Do We Date Or Ghost This Modern Day Erotic Thriller? (REVIEW)

Relationships are hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first-hand hold in 3rd grade or rounding the corner on 50 years of marriage, relationships expose the most vulnerable, raw you and they will leave a mark. That mark can be good or bad and director Joy Wilkinson takes on the challenge of representing the lifetime of a relationship over a long weekend with “7 KEYS” premiering at FrightFest UK this month. It’s an admirable attempt and the performances from Emma McDonald as Lena and Billy Postlewaite as Daniel are solid but unfortunately, this film falls flat due to a reliance on tired genre tropes, improbable decisions, and a bloated middle.

When her date lets her down, single mother Lena meets lost soul Daniel and there’s an instant connection, especially when she learns that he’s kept the keys to all the places he’s ever lived. Lena doesn’t want to go home. She wants to run away from the troubles of her real life and recapture all the fun she’s missed out on, using Daniel’s keys to go on the ultimate tour of London, a wild weekend getting to know each other intimately in other people’s homes. In each home, they peel back another layer of each other’s identities and this thrilling game gets deeper. It seems like they’re soulmates, made to save each other, until reality kicks in and dark secrets are unlocked. Will either of them survive the weekend and own the seventh key?

Let’s begin with some praise for director Joy Wilkinson, an accomplished playwright since age 14 when she co-wrote “Fried Eggs and Fag Ends” and the winner of the Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award, she should be commended for trying to represent the lifespan of an ultimately toxic relationship over just 72 hours.  It’s a daunting task and one that she almost pulls off were it not for the fact that after the 3rd key, the audience is no longer along for the ride but now held hostage with the tiresome slog through 4 more London flats.  This production would have been better served as a short film.

As mentioned above, the performances by McDonald and Postlewaite are engaging and their blossoming chemistry doesn’t come off as forced for the sake of pacing but Daniel’s turn from Walter Mitty to Walter White is too abrupt and would have best been saved for the final key and Lena makes some bizarre decisions that keep her in Daniels orbit well after his Mr. Hyde emerges. It’s appreciated that neither character is who they seem to be but his transition comes at the cost of believability and his subsequent descent bloats the 2nd act considerably. Lena’s character arc is more realistic and heartfelt but some of her decisions are unrealistic and take the viewer out of the movie. The character that comes off the best in the film is London itself, which is shot gorgeously in vivid color by cinematographer Mary Farbrother. Awash in saturated greens and reds the streets and exteriors have never looked so lush and exotic.

Although this is ultimately a miss, there’s enough here to be optimistic for future projects from Joy Wilkinson. Taking on an erotic thriller in 2024 is no small task and she damn near pulls it off. I’ll be watching for what’s on the horizon and hoping to see her exquisite version of London displayed onscreen again.

Production Company: Jeva Films & 4 8 Fourteen Films.

Director: Joy Wilkinson
Written By: Joy Wilkinson

Produced By: Cassandra Sigsgaard & Dylan Rees

Cast: Emma McDonald & Billy Postlethwaite, Joey Akubeze, Amit Shah, Kaylen Luke, Jane Goddard, Jemma Moore, 

Run Time: 93 Mins

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