Cerebrum — Cerebrum(VOD)

In this feature directorial debut from Sebastien Blanc, we bear witness to a body horror nightmare of one man’s obsession to raise the dead. William (Tobi King Bakare) and his mother (Romona Von Pusch) both get involved in a serious accident, of which only William survives to go home to his adopted father Richard (Steve Oram). Plagued by visions of his dead mother, William struggles to recover but he soon discovers the dark secret his father has been cooking up in the basement. Richard has found a way to resurrect the dead, and he is not going to stop until his beloved wife has been returned to him.

 

There has been somewhat of a British indie horror renaissance recently, Bailey-Bond’s 2021 film Censor and the 2020 film His House from Remi Weekes have been strong highlights of the, and while I don’t quite think Cerebrum reaches those heights I still think this is a plenty compelling call back to the 80s careers of directors like David Cronenberg or Stuart Gordon. Although it does take a long time to get to those body horror elements, the build-up is by far the most compelling aspect of Blanc’s film. We spend a good 50 minutes just creating this oppressive atmosphere, the way Richard is holding William back at every opportunity does speak to a true element of horror that exists within the foster system. The lack of an obvious horror element, the ghost visions aside, makes this feel reminiscent of Stephen King’s Misery as we are focused on just exploring how Richard treats his son.

 

Eventually, there is the reveal that Richard has found a way to resurrect the dead through a form of invasive brain surgery, while Blanc and cinematographer Jamie Touche do a really great job at capturing this dingy side of a house which has looked deceptively inviting up until this moment. As much as I appreciate the resurrection device being unexplained and mysterious, there doesn’t feel like we spend much time exploring the implications of being able to bring back the dead. We get one really effective scene where his wife is resurrected in another body and it immediately begins to die in a suitably bloody fashion, but I really wish we spent more time exploring the horrific implications of this mad science.

 

Cerebrum is effortlessly carried by two central performances from Bakare and Oram. For much of the first half of the film Bakare is playing a mute character, so he’s really trying to sell William’s fear and suspicion through a heightening physicality and body-language focused performance. He succeeds and really gets into the mind of William to bring a performance which visual captures this feeling of anxiety so well. Oram on the other hand does the perfect job at playing a really calm and creepy maniac, bringing shades of his performance from 2014’s Sightseers in terms of the quiet insanity of this demented character.

 

British horror always has this creeping sense of insanity and tension, Cerebrum proves that this usually makes for an effective and tight slice of fear. I honestly think the film doesn’t quite live up to the expectations that its horrific concept sets up, but the initial horror of simply seeing a failing relationship between William and Richard does such a good job at creating tension and claustrophobia to the point that these two performances are really what keep the film going. I would quite like to see some more horror from Blanc since he’s got a really great eye for this style of horror narrative. Cerebrum is available to rent and buy digitally from the 3rd of July.