Bull ★★★½

BRITISH actor Neil Maskell is far from a household name.

But he’s a creator of memorable characters whose air of quiet menace can dominate the screen, similar to the likes of Ray Winstone, Sean Harris and Stephen Graham.

His first film was the ferocious Nil By Mouth in 1997 but he’s best known for appearing in several Ben Wheatley films including 2010’s genre-bending Kill List. Another of his best performances was in Hyena, released in 2014.

Maskell takes centre-stage in the tough revenge drama Bull. The film was made for around $1 million dollars and filmed in 18 days but the results, released in 2022, far exceed those restrictions.

We meet Maskell’s character when he returns to an English town after almost a decade away. People are immediately concerned – and well they should be as one of them quickly winds up dead.

The film then shifts effortlessly between past and present, gradually leading up to the shocking events that triggered Bull’s disappearance.

We learn that Bull was an enforcer for his former partner’s father Norm, played by David Haynam, who is the head of a criminal organisation centred around their family.

There is nothing profound being said here by writer/director Paul Andrew Williams, just a ruthlessly efficient drama about bad people doing bad things to even worse people.