''The Disappearance of Alice Creed '' is a 2009 British

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

film written and directed by

J Blakeson Jonathan Blakeson is an English film director and screenwriter. His first feature film was '' The Disappearance of Alice Creed'' (2009), a thriller starring Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan, which he wrote and directed. His mos ...

. It is about the kidnapping of a young woman ( Gemma Arterton) by two ex-convicts ( Martin Compston and

Eddie Marsan Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008). He has feature ...

). The film was shot on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...

Plot

Criminals Vic and Danny

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

a woman named Alice Creed, the only child of a wealthy family. In a secured room, they forcibly strip her of all her clothes,

handcuff Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that ...

her to a bed, and gag her – all while wearing jumpsuits and

ski mask A balaclava, also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the fron ...

s themselves. After taking pictures of her they put a tracksuit on her and a hood over her head. The men leave to dispose of all three's clothes and send the pictures to Alice's father for ransom. The men refuse to let her out of her shackles, even to go to the toilet, seemingly just to embarrass her. Neither shows emotion while humiliating Alice, but Vic mocks Danny for being less calm. Vic leaves to make preparations, whilst Danny guards Alice. Alice persuades Danny to uncuff her, then grabs his pistol and fires a warning shot. To keep from being shot, Danny removes his ski mask and reveals he is her former lover. He says he met Vic while in prison and chose her as their victim. Danny plans to double-cross Vic and offers to start a new life with Alice and the money. As Vic returns, Alice agrees to go along with Danny's plan and be tied back up. Later, when Vic is away again, Alice seduces Danny and handcuffs him to the bed, but finds the door bolted shut when she tries to escape. She finds a mobile phone and dials 999 but is unable to tell the operator where she is. She threatens Danny with his gun for the front door keys. Danny tells her they are in his pocket and knocks her out when she tries to retrieve them. Vic returns and says the exchange is on. Danny leaves the two and goes to the van. Vic finds the mobile phone and sees the 999 call as well as the bullet hole in the wall. He ungags and threatens her. She screams for Danny, then tells Vic that Danny intends to double-cross him. Vic is shocked by the betrayal. When Danny returns, Vic says he feels something is 'not right', but Danny does not reveal anything. They inject Alice with a sedative and take her to a deserted, rural warehouse where they chain her in a back room. Vic asks Danny for his keys to the locks and drives him to the woods to pick up the ransom. There, Vic confronts Danny and threatens to kill both him and Alice. He says the hole they dug for the ransom is now for Danny. Danny flees, and Vic shoots him. Although wounded, Danny manages to hide. Vic retrieves the ransom elsewhere and returns for Alice. As he tries to inject her again, Danny appears and grabs his gun. In the struggle, Vic reveals to Alice that they were former lovers. Danny shoots Vic point blank and, to Alice's horror, leaves her in the dark and handcuffed to the railing next to the dying man. However, Vic revives long enough to throw the keys to her. She frees herself and staggers out of the warehouse. Outside, Alice finds a car a short distance up the road, with the ransom on the passenger seat and Danny dead in the driver's seat. As she drives off with the money, the radio reports the news of her disappearance.

Cast

* Gemma Arterton as Alice Creed * Martin Compston as Danny *

as Vic

Filming

The film was shot on the Isle of Man and was largely filmed over four weeks in chronological order. Arterton insisted on being handcuffed to the bed even when not being filmed to help her performance. She joked that the crew used the gag prop to stop her chatting on set.

Soundtrack

The score for the film was composed by Marc Canham and was his first film music having previously worked on music for

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s. The

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, strings, and some of the

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

were recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, whilst the remainder was recorded at Carnham's studio in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

. The only other music used on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

was the song Holy Moly by

Cathy Davey Catherine "Cathy" Davey (born 1979) is an Irish singer-songwriter. She has released one extended play, "Come Over" (2004), and four albums, '' Something Ilk'' (2004), '' Tales of Silversleeve'' (2007), '' The Nameless'' (2010) and ''New Forest' ...

Release

The film was screened at the 2009

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

, the 2009

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

,The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Toronto International Film Festival and the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

in 2010. After a well-publicised Facebook campaign to choose a cinema to host the World Premiere of the film, Southampton University Student's Union won the event, which took place on 20 April 2010.

Critical reception

''The Disappearance of Alice Creed'' holds an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 99 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10. According to Metacritic, which sampled the opinions of 19 critics and calculated a score of 65 out of 100, the film received "generally favorable reviews". The film has received a number of four star ratings in the UK press. Peter Bradshaw at ''The Guardian'' made the following comment about the much discussed plot twists: "There's twist and counter-twist, cross and double-cross, and with each narrative reveal comes a firework display of Big Acting". It was well received at the

(TIFF). Cameron Bailey, co-director of TIFF, praised

's directorial style, claiming that "Not since ''

Reservoir Dogs ''Reservoir Dogs'' is a 1992 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward B ...

'' has a hostage standoff been handled with such intelligence". The film was nominated for the Raindance Award at the 2009

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports and promotes British independent cinema and filmmaking talent in United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, ...

Home media

The film was released on DVD in the UK on 4 October 2010.

Remakes

In 2014, the Dutch-language remake '' Reckless'' was the opening film of the

Netherlands Film Festival The Netherlands Film Festival ( nl, Nederlands Film Festival) is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht. During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Be ...

. The film closely follows the plot and structure of ''The Disappearance of Alice Creed''. In 2019, Netflix released '' Kidnapping Stella'', a German remake of ''The Disappearance of Alice Creed''. The film, directed by Thomas Sieben, centers around the abduction of Stella (Jella Haase) by Vic (Clemens Schick) and Tom (Max von der Groeben). The films follow the setup of Italian kidnapping exploitation film La Orca (1976) with some plot variations.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Disappearance Of Alice Creed 2009 independent films 2009 crime thriller films 2009 films Bisexuality-related films British crime thriller films British independent films British LGBT-related films 2009 directorial debut films Films about kidnapping in the United Kingdom Films shot in England Films shot in the Isle of Man Gay-related films LGBT-related thriller films Male bisexuality in film Three-handers Films directed by J Blakeson 2000s English-language films 2000s British films