In Fabric

‘The hesitation in your voice, soon to be an echo in the recess in the spheres of retail’ Miss Luckmoore

The new comedy/horror both written and directed by Peter Stirckland quickly loses momentum.

Sheila goes to buy a dress in the sale to wear on her first date in a long time; however, the one of a kind dress she buys, creates nonstop problems for Shelia and all of its subsequent owners.

In all honesty, I had completely forgotten the premise for the film, despite buying the ticket less than a week before I went to see it. Because of this I didn’t expect the comedy element of the film, so when many people I the audience were laughing I was confused, because not only did I fail to find large amounts of comedy in the film, I hadn’t expected it.  

The main character that created comedy in the film was Miss Luckmoore, played by Fatma Mohamed, who spoke in a philosophical manner. Although most others found her funny, I found the way she spoke quite intense and mesmerising and would call her the lead in the film as well as a standout actor, second only to the lethal red dress.

Another great performance was by Marianne Jean Baptiste, who I know of from her role on the TV series Without a Trace. Her storyline was the initial focus of the film but surprisingly not the last. An engaged couple are subject to the dress after her for the last hour and a half of the film.

At this point I felt that the film had become too long and thought that it would be a better potentially as a series as nothing linked their storyline to Sheila’s besides the dress. I’m inclined to this idea after hearing Strickland say that he initially wrote three more storylines for the film. To Strickland’s credit he ties up both storylines well at the end and you would never know that the tale of the red dress could’ve gone on.

Nevertheless, the prolonged storyline causes the horror aspect of the film to falter for me.