Resurrecting The Street Walker (DVD)

Desperate to catch a break, aspiring filmmaker James (Powell) enlists best pal Marcus (Shaw) to document his fledgling first steps into the industry as an unpaid intern. Wading through the mundane duties of a lowly runner, and regularly incurring the wrath of foul mouthed colleague Dorothy (Beckett), James’ fading spirits are soon lifted when he unearths an unfinished horror flick from the workplace basement.

Enthralled by the shady history surrounding the abandoned project, and determined to make his mark in a cutthroat industry, James decides to bring “The Street Walker” to long overdue fruition. But reviving the video nasty proves far from easy. First, an act of sabotage halts filming and soon after, James’ lead actress drops dead of an asthma attack. Finally, with every avenue exhausted, James’ sanity falters and the line between reality and the sinister world of his pet project blurs with disastrous consequences.

Taking the mockumentary approach, Resurrecting The Street Walker successfully avoids the usual pitfalls of its tricky subgenre. Introduced as a retrospective documentary, the film intercuts between footage of James’ day to day endeavours, the grainy extracts of the titular gore flick and stone faced interviews with his nearest and dearest as they reflect on James and his ill fated association with the abandoned horror flick.

With so many layers at work here, the overall picture could have quite easily fallen away at the seams. But director Ozgur Uyanik has ensured each strand is both individually sound, and cohesive to the film overall. James’ personal story is well judged, played authentically and with realism, but is not refused a sense of heightened drama when called for.

The characters are well drawn, with James particularly memorable as an ambitious young man who’s as endearing as he is frustrating. Having best pal Marcus behind the camera is a smart move, bringing out the softer notes to James’ character, whilst making his darker streaks all the more frightening when they emerge.

Unfortunately, the film does suffer from some clumsy foreshadowing. The eventual implosion of the put upon James is heavily hinted at from the off, and while this works perfectly well, the eventual target and nature of his final violent outburst is all too predictable. The fictional “Street Walker” picture is also a shaky component. Whilst the sinister events surrounding the original shoot are interesting and unsettling, the footage itself is a little too amateurish and uninspired to justify why the central character would engage with it so whole-heartedly.

Overall Verdict: It’s not without its faults, but Resurrecting The Street Walker is a smart take on the pseudo-doc and an engaging thriller in its own right. 

Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Test Footage
Cast and Crew Interviews
Audio Commentary

Reviewer: David Steele