Deadly Virtues ★★ 

LADIES and gentlemen, the award for most pretentious title for 2014 goes to Deadly Virtues: Love.Honour.Obey.

I mean really – why not just Deadly Virtues and why in hell the full stops between each word?

Anyway, this horror/thriller is directed by Dutchman Ate de Jong who hasn’t managed to do much else of note before or following.

It’s a decent enough premise, but still not really worth the investment of time and effort to see it unfold.

Matt Barber and Megan Maczko play a married couple who are terrorised by a sadistic intruder played by Edward Akrout. There is only one other character.

Claustrophobic and intense, single-location three-handers aren’t common but there is no reason why they can’t be immersive experiences.

Actually there is – if they aren’t well made.

As is usual with lower budget films, this was obviously shot in chronological order and consequently the acting starts off being a little awful but eventually fairly decent as characters are tortured, abused and generally mistreated.

But de Jong does not help with his camera placement, blocking, choice of close-up or wider shot and focussing all erratic at best and sub-par at worst.

The final act is quite good but, unlike his actors, the director doesn’t have the luxury of learning how not to do things as he goes.