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The work of Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if slight debut feature casts a critical gaze on 90s rave culture. Self-serving drug user David (the actor) first robs an unconscious dealer, then in a later recollection tries to burgle his own parents. Before you can say, he's upside down in the wreckage of his car in a woodland – and subject to the angry eye of the Woodsman (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Declining to free David, with no time for townies, he is a fractured society personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”

Unsteady Opening and Grimly Amusing Confrontation

The film begins uncertainly, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his safety harness, while awkwardly transitioning into past scenes of his everyday life. The central theme – that the ecstasy generation were mainly focused on number one – is firmly made. But these vignettes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Poacher arrives, fuming after David strangles his dog. Still, a darkly funny standoff unfolds – David desperate to escape; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, intent on dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, projecting ponderous menace in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.

Stylish Imagery and Promo-Inspired Sensibility

There is only one key story turn, but it leads to a hilariously staged rampage on the woodland paths that veers toward folk horror. Director John Minton finally gets to go all in with his ostentatious visuals: where he was focused intently doing artful shots of bugs in headlights in the early stages, he now lets rip with the full psychedelic 21-gun salute, accompanied by a wild organ version of Ravel’s Boléro. The movie resembles an elongated music video than a fully fledged drama, but there’s enough strident imagery to suggest that Minton could follow Jonathan Glazer, Garth Jennings et al into successfully graduating from the UK video industry.

The film is in UK and Irish cinemas from 17 November.