REVIEW: Jump (2015)

- By Chris Barnes

Whichever way you slice it, some of the most popular Christmas films are sinister affairs. Be honest, the festive period is awash with creepy innuendo – you know the typical ones, like “Sit here, little boy”, yadda yadda yadda, “Don’t cry for mummy, she can’t hear you”, blah blah blah, “If you really want that bike you’ll stroke my FUCKING beard, you little CANDY-CANE TEASE!!!”…………. ahem……….. you know ’em.

Anyways, back to the films, and I’m not just talking about deliberate Yuletide horror either (of which there are many): the likes of A Christmas Carol (any version), The Grinch and Home Alone – family flicks - also have that dark undercurrent; the combination of wholesome merriment and morbid malice being a perfect platform for ominous happenings.

Bloody Cuts’ Deathly Presents was a favourite short film of ours recently to expertly capitalise on such an arrangement and I’m happy say I can now add Richard Anthony Dunford’s 9-minute dark comedy, Jump, to the list. Out-and-out horror it is not, but with a plot focussing on a suicidal man and a mangled ghost I’d be reluctant to call it your textbook turkey dinner and tinsel accompaniment either. I’ve also had the pleasure of reviewing Dunford’s unique feature, P.O.V, so I knew I was in safe (and twisted) hands and nothing would be entirely as it seemed.

A haphazard, aggressive piercing of a microwave meal for one’s cellophane lid punctuates a version of Winter Wonderland that’d usually be deemed quite pleasant – but not to ol’ George Bailey (Neil Summerville), not today. Fully kitted out in twatwear we all reserve for this particular time of year (paper hat, shit reindeer jumper), he clutches divorce papers and is full to the brim with angry, futile tears - his small decorated tree doing little to help his mood.

Contemplating jumping to his death, he looks down from atop his block of flats over London, only for the spirit of a previous suicide victim to intervene – eternally scarred and bloodied from her own dabble with disaster.

To elaborate any further would be criminal, but rest assured you won’t be disappointed come Jump’s finale and be safe in the knowledge excellently written dialogue ensues – clever enough to remain funny and somehow jovial regardless of the subject matter, yet consistently reminding us how poignant, lonely and sorrowful this stretch of December can be.

So, why wait until Xmas? See it before topping yourself, definitely. Oh, and if you are intent on flopping to your death, remember to put your makeup on – you wouldn’t want to be single for the rest of eternity now, would you?

@TheBlueTook