After waking up with no memory after an accident, a man seeks help, but people and other creatures are mysteriously dropping dead. With a growing horror he realises he is somehow responsible. He then meets a woman, also with no memory, who seems to be the only person who can come close to him...
Sometimes a film comes along that blindsides you, both with its premise and also its execution. Radius is such a film. A Sci-Fi film that has a premise, which I don't recall ever seeing before, one that I think owes a debt to a series like The Twilight Zone. The co-writers and directors Caroline Labreche and Steeve Leonard have created a clever mystery that they allow to reveal its secrets gradually, until it's final big reveal, one that it pulls off brilliantly. In other films a development like that could sink the film, but Labreche and Leonard pull it off, leading to a slightly devastating and emotional ending.
It helps that they make decisions much like, for example, Romero did with Night Of The Living Dead, in that they offer up a reason as to what has caused the situation, but, like Romero, never fully explain it and yet we in the audience accept it.
But even before then, as directors, Labreche and Leonard make some great decisions. There's no need to overdo the deaths that occur, that other filmmakers might have done. They never feel the need to explain what the people are dying from, instead focusing much more on how those events affect the couple at the heart of the tale.
The two leads are great. Diego Klattenhoff as Liam, the man at the centre of the mystery and Charlotte Sullivan as Jane have to carry the film, as for the most part it is just them on screen and both are good enough to do so. With the story told in the 'present' as well as brief flashbacks as their memories begin to return, you are never really sure who is telling the truth at times, until the bond between them grows. It's also great to see a film where there is no romantic development between the two, which other filmmakers would no doubt have put in.
Of the supporting cast, it's really only Brett Donahue as Sam that really registers, but as I said, this is due more to the film focusing more on Liam and Jane as they piece everything together.
Like some other films at FrightFest, such as InControl and Sequence Break, Radius is a low-key film, not reliant on big CGI scenes, or scenes of bloody violence, but instead is an interesting, clever Sci-Fi film, one that I hope finds its audience as it is a very good film indeed.
A favourite from FrightFest, this is highly recommended.
Rating - 4/5
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