The Group — The Group(VOD)

What could be worse than finally plucking up the courage to face your most intense personal fears than your efforts being hijacked by a gun-wielding stranger hellbent on revenge? That’s the premise for writer-director William Higo’s new film, The Group which uses the familiar setting of group therapy to tell the story of what at first appears to be a laudable push for redemption, but which descends into a nightmare of recrimination, torture and death.

Having cut his teeth making shorts, including a segment for Bloody Disgusting’s World of Death series, not to mention editing T2 Trainspotting: 20 Years in the Making, Higo’s first full-length directorial feature (first shown at Frightfest 2022) presents the story of recovering heroin addict Kara (played by Evangelina Burton) who, following a relapse, returns to NA/AA equivalent Addicts Anonymous Together, to find solace and heal the scars of a repressed tragedy. There she hooks up with a handful of familiar faces and a few not-so-familiar ones as we encounter pretty much every addict caricature in the book. The aggressive city boy (Tom Coulston) who is vehemently not like the rest, an ex-copper with a secret (Mike Kelson), the allegedly sober Seth (Luke Dayhill) and the two-year definitively sober Charley (Jennier Aries) who is fighting to get her daughter back – all under the supervision of the empathic and sympathetic Ellen (Alicia Novak). The stability of this fragile circle, already fraught with antagonism, guilt and dissent, is thrown into complete disarray when Jack (played by Dylan Baldwin) arrives - gun in hand and full of fury, with a score to settle and in his own merciless way, forces each and every attendee to look into the core of their souls with some shocking consequences.

The basic premise of The Group is a well-trodden but always interesting one – a shadowy figure seeks revenge amidst a backdrop of secrets, mystery and deceit, Agatha Christie anyone? But here, the tale has been brought kicking and screaming into the present day with a level of brutality and meaning that gives the narrative a whole new tone and dynamic. Still very much a thriller, there’s nothing quaint about this one. It’s ruthless and Higo makes a decent stab at creating something that is both gripping and relevant.

But somehow it just doesn’t quite come together. While the setting undoubtedly works (albeit within a production that visually is hard on the eyes), there is an overall lack of tension that significantly impacts how much we actually care what happens to any of the characters, including protagonist Kara, and diminishes any real interest in our ostensibly maniacal gunman. Whether it is the level of acting or the quality of the dialogue, hackneyed in places, a vital ingredient is missing.

I am an eager fan of one-location films and can get fully on board with a narrative that is preloaded with twists and turns, but The Group is neither sufficiently horrific (in the best way) nor thrilling enough for any of the reveals to adequately land. It’s not a bad film, in fact, it’s full of potential and good ideas, but it lacks some much-needed tension. See for yourself, The Group had its UK digital debut this month courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films.