Heartless

Acclaimed visionary director Philip Ridley ("The Reflecting Skin," "The Passion of Darkly Noon") returns to the screen after a fourteen-year absence with this chilling tale of supernatural forces unleashing "a delirious London nightmare" (Cath Clarke, the Guardian). Jamie Morgan (Jim Stugess, "Across the Universe") is a talented young photographer whose disfiguring birthmark makes him feel an outsider in the rough patch of East London he calls home. Developing pictures he's taken in an abandoned lot, Jamie sees a hooded figure peering from behind a window. Investigating, he stumbles into a horrific world of reptilian monsters posing as street gangs, violence inflicted on the most innocent, and a demon (Joseph Mawle) with the power to offer Jamie everything he's ever dreamed of - at a deadly price. This dark "urban fairy tale" (Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice) offers echoes of both "Donnie Darko" and Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up. " the superb British cast includes Ruth Sheen ("Vera Drake"), Timothy Spall ("The King's Speech"), Eddie Marsan ("Happy-Go-Lucky"), and Clemence Poesy ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"). This "bracingly ambitious mixture of Faustian fantasy and graphic urban thriller" (Allan Hunter, the Daily Express) is like nothing else, heart stopping and darkly beautiful.