The movie was added to Netflix earlier this month.
There are two things we want to say before we get into the nitty-gritty of this movie.
First of all, you need to give it the first ten minutes to play out. You might think it is starting off very slowly, maybe too slowly, but there is a reason why the movie is taking its time…
And secondly, we really recommend you just go straight to Netflix, locate Calibre and push play without any more information, because the less you know about it, the better.
Still here? Okay, then we’ll keep the details of the movie’s greatness as light as possible…
The movie stars Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) and Martin McCann (’71) as two best friends who are heading off on a weekend of hunting deer in the Scottish wilderness. Loweden’s character is the more sensible of the two, and as his wife is about to give birth, this will likely be his last “lads weekend” for a while, while McCann’s character is a cocaine-snorting banker, so he’s looking for any excuse to have fun.
After their first night in the small town of boozing and having fun with the locals, they head out to the woods with their guns and their hangovers, and begin hunting for deer.
Lowden takes aim, misses, and kills a young boy who happened to be standing right behind the deer he was aiming at.
You might be thinking SPOILER!, but this is truly just the beginning of the men’s living nightmare, as they attempt to escape the town without being caught, but every person they encounter on their way forces them into worse and worse situations.
Writer/director Matt Palmer masterfully ratchets up the tension constantly from that point onwards in his debut feature film, getting amazing performances out of his lead actors, and while there are obvious nods to the likes of Hitchcock, The Wicker Man, Kill List, and Deliverence, this movie truly does become its own thing by the end.
Currently sitting with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but likely to go unnoticed because it didn’t get a cinema release, we really do recommend you check out Calibre as soon as you can.
Clip via Netflix UK & Ireland
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