Rose Of Nevada film review: Fishing for horror
Mark Jenkin continues his knack for genre innovation with the chilling nautical tale of fisherman sailing out of their depth
The BAFTA-winning writer-director of Bait, Mark Jenkin, brings his singular style to an eerie science-fiction story following two fishermen who set sail on a brain-scrambling trip. It introduces us to George MacKay’s Nick, a financially strapped family man who, after making a dog’s dinner of his roof repairs, secures a job as part of a three-man crew.
Nick hops aboard the Rose Of Nevada alongside drifter Liam (Callum Turner) and Francis Magee’s enigmatic captain, but the vessel in question has mysteriously reappeared in a Cornish harbour after a three-decade-long absence, and it plunges them into the past. Bait’s Edward Rowe features as the boat’s owner, with Slow Horses alumnus Rosalind Eleazar the haunted wife of a missing man.
There are elements of genre staples like Jaws and Back To The Future but tonally and stylistically the film couldn’t be more different. Rose Of Nevada is an ingenious, avant-garde effort that manages to feel both rough-around-the-edges and scrupulously intense, as it gathers dishevelled details to form a filmic patchwork, and cranks up unease. In the midst of this madness, there’s a poignant and emotional turn from the ever-reliable MacKay, playing a man set adrift from his loved ones and stripped of his identity but with the chance to change history, while Turner brings cocky charm to a character who doesn’t seem to care.
Exploring male angst, personal sacrifice and the decimation of coastal communities, and throwing in quirky humour along the way (at one point a character is described as an ‘orifice of knowledge’), Rose Of Nevada has all the makings of a cult classic. Jenkin is a director who knows exactly who he is.
Rose Of Nevada is in cinemas from Friday 24 April.