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NIGHT VISION
JACKDAW Jamie Childs turns to a nocturnal life of crime for a super-sleek feature debut.
When Jamie Childs looks out the window of his house on the Hartlepool Headland, he can see most of the locations that he used in his feature debut, Jackdaw. The wind turbines out to sea. A steelworks. The oil refineries on the road to Seaham that gave Ridley Scott visual impetus for Blade Runner’s LA skyscapes…
‘The refineries are basically these big Christmas trees of lights and fireballs,’ he smiles. ‘They lit the car chase for us. Jackdaw is a relatively low-budget film so I tried to make something that looked more expensive than it was.’
Jackdaw looks good. It looks great. Though set in the northern rustbelt, it has no interest in social realism, instead offering mythical landscapes, strippeddown action, and dialogue and characters reduced to an essence.
At its centre is former motocross champion and army veteran Jackdaw (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), returned to his hometown to look after his younger brother. Broke, he agrees to do an openwater pick-up of an illegal package, but is double-crossed, his brother kidnapped. Bad mistake: Jackdaw is the archetypal avenger of many westerns and thrillers, and he’s now after not just his brother, but blood.
‘I love spaghetti westerns, and Ollie does have that Clint Eastwood thing,’ nods Childs. ‘Jackdaw is a kind of neo-western, really. It’s got guys on horses shooting guns. And I was trying to create an enigmatic character.’
He didn’t have much time to create anything, which only makes his streamlined thriller all the more impressive. Approached in August 2022, Childs was asked to write and shoot a genre piece by Christmas. He did just that, using the experience gained from making shorts and high-end genre TV (The Sandman, His Dark Materials) to go at the 23-day shoot ‘all guns blazing’. Also flaming bright is a supporting cast that includes Thomas Turgoose, Allan Mustafa, Rory McCann, Vivienne Acheampong and Jenna Coleman, the last of whom also acts alongside Jackson-Cohen in Prime Video series Wilderness.
‘I was trying to create an enigmatic character’
JAMIE CHILDS
But it’s the look and vibe that’s the thing. Childs wears his references on his blood-flecked sleeve, namechecking Mad Max and Akira before zooming in on his primary influences. ‘My references were Walter Hill survive ‐the-night movies like Streets of Fire or The Warriors, and John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and Escape from New York,’ he says. ‘So I was trying to create this sort of fictional world. Nobody really does [these kinds of movies in Britain]. And I can understand why. Seeing how they’re trying to advertise the film now, they don’t really get it! I guess it’s quite niche.’
Who wants cookie-cutter cinema? Niche is good. Jackdaw is very good. Get on it.
JACKDAW OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 26 JANUARY 2024.