DVD Review: The Owners (2020)

Out now on digital and released on 1^st March on DVD, The Owners is a home invasion horror of interest to Doctor Who fans as it pairs the Seventh Doctor himself, Sylvester McCoy with Maisie Williams, who previously played Ashildr in Series 9.

Forced to tag along with her layabout boyfriend (Ian Kenny), lovesick mate (Andrew Ellis) and their scumbag friend (Jake Curran) as they break into the home of the kindly Doctor Huggins and his wife, Mary (Maisie Williams) soon discovers that the elderly couple is far from the pillars of society that they seem as the robbery goes very badly wrong indeed. 

If all that sounds fairly familiar and well-worn to you, then you’d be quite right. The overweight incel pining for his mate’s girl, said put-upon girlfriend who puts up with far more from her deadbeat boyfriend than seems realistic and the despicable, scuzzy bad influence who threatens violence or sexual assault at the drop of a hat are all standard horror movie archetypes that feel a bit dated. So does the relentless use of c**t and retard, presumably designed to heighten the vulgarity of the intruders, it just feels juvenile, and I say that as a Scotsman for whom the C-word is practically punctuation. As the ransacking and fraught relationships between our burglars drag on, The Owners begins to feel like a slightly tired retread of much stronger work. That is until the titular Huggins’ return home to confront the intruders.

It’s here through a well-directed, genuinely tense basement scene that the film switches from home invasion horror to something more akin to a haunted house psychological chiller. It’s here where The Owners delivers, and much of this is down to terrific performances by the veteran actors Rita Tushingham and Sylvester McCoy.

Tushingham initially gives us a delicate, fragile performance as a scared and confused older woman, ravaged by what we presume is Alzheimer’s or Dementia. This fragility recalls her character in the incredibly disturbing Hammer horror Straight on ‘til Morning from 1972. Soon though, Tushingham begins to gamely inflect this performance with occasional flashes of malice and menace as we begin to realise that there’s more to this couple than meets the eye.

Indeed, there are more than a few hints of the manipulative ‘knows more than he’s letting on’ Seventh Doctor to Sylvester McCoy’s portrayal of Doctor Huggins. Sylv is on particularly fine form, clearly relishing the chance to play a villain. One scene, in which he delivers a chilling, menacing speech from the dinner table can’t fail to remind Who fans in the audience of Josiah Smith’s similarly ill-fated dinner from Ghost Light.

That story is emphasised further by an aspect ratio shift in the final third that both amplifies the claustrophobic horror of Mary’s situation and evokes the low-budget horror films and television of the 1980s. It’s a formal flourish which belies a film that often feels rather formulaic. That being said, there’s a good deal of atmospheric direction, grizzly violence and unnerving imagery to keep you entertained for ninety minutes on a Friday night. There are also two terrific central performances by Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham, who I ended up rooting for instead of Maisie Williams’ heroine. I’m not sure if that’s a failing of the film or my moral character…

Competition!

Signature Entertainment has given us a copy of the film to give away to one reader. Just pop your answer to the following question in the comment below:

Which 1960’s Doctor Who actress lost out on the lead role in A Taste of Honey to The Owners’ Rita Tushingham?

A. Anneke Wills

B. Carole-Ann Ford

C. Jackie Lane

We’ll announce the winner on Friday 5th March and will contact the winner directly. Good luck.