Skeletons review

The dangers of being able to access the past....

Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

“You could get lost in here and never find your way out,” says psychic investigator Ed Gaughan to a curious client.

He’s talking about memories, which he and his partner routinely revisit as part of their day jobs, seeking (metaphorical) skeletons in people’s (actual) closets. It’s a danger he knows well.

Exploring the temptation and torment of having access to fragments of the past (like Harry Potter’s Pensieve), Nick Whitfield’s peculiar debut plays out like Samuel Beckett by way of David Brent, with mordant humour undercutting the parochial oddness.

Though there’s a little narrative drift in the middle, as a portrait of lives wrecked and remedied by memory’s narcotic pull it’s both strange and strangely moving.

Freelance Writer

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.

Latest in Comedy Movies
The Monkey
Horror movie marketing ups its game once again, as the team behind The Monkey sends a gross-out bus to drive around Hollywood
Shrek 5
Dune and Spider-Man star Zendaya is Shrek and Fiona’s daughter in the first meme-filled teaser for Shrek 5 and this is the happiest I’ve been since Shrek 2
A Minecraft Movie stills
Jack Black playing Minecraft is the most wholesome thing you'll see all day
Blake Lively as Emily in Another Simple Favor
7 years on from the original, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick reunite in sinister, sun-soaked first trailer for comedy thriller sequel Another Simple Favor
Al Pacino in Jack and Jill
32 movies with Oscar-winning actors in bizarre roles
Theo James in The Monkey
The Monkey's Tatiana Maslany reacts to the horror movie's most shocking death: "It's so wrong, and I think that's why it's so right"
Latest in Reviews
Doggerland player board
Doggerland review: "A delicate dance of survival and management that doesn't feel weighted toward a single strategy"
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX gaming mouse standing upright on a wooden desk
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX review: "a force to be reckoned with"
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again season 1 review: "There have been far worse Marvel projects, but few as disappointing as this"
RTX 5070 Founders Edition and Asus Prime OC graphics card standing vertical on woodgrain desk next to plant and monitor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review: "far from a RTX 4090 rival, but I’d still call it a solid 4K GPU"
The two characters in Split Fiction dressed in fantasy gear each with a dragon on their back
Split Fiction review: "Cements Hazelight as the master of co-op games"
Acer Nitro V 14 gaming laptop on a wooden desk
Acer Nitro V 14 review: "a solid value proposition… if you can find one"