Winter Ridge Review

Winter Ridge is a low-budget crime drama shot in Devon, England that shows a lot of promise from the people involved.

Ryan Barnes (Matt Hookings) is a young police detective in a small coastal town. His wife, Sara (Claudia Archer) has been in a coma for seven months after being hit by a drunk driver. Ryan has to juggle the troubles of his personal life with his work as the town gets plagued by a serial killer.

Winter Ridge was a film that has done well on the festival circuit, winning awards at the London Independent Film Festival and Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and it has been picked up for distribution in the UK. It is the third feature film from director Dom Lenoir and his first beyond the horror genre and was Ross Owen Williams’ first feature as a screenwriter.

The plot is a solid police procedural that wouldn’t be out of place on a British TV show or in a crime novel and Williams wisely added the personal drama. Williams and Lenoir pack a lot of story into the 86 minute film which both a blessing and a curse. The pair wanted to make sure their film had some substance by having themes of memory loss and grief and the small town community allows everyone to know each other and be involved in each other’s business. However, due to the film trying to cover so much in such a little time that some subplots are pushed to the periphery.

Winter Ridge had a strong cast. Hookings is a newcomer, his only credits are in short films and bit parts in big budget films. He was a compelling lead as the detective who has to stay professional, suffers from nightmares and refuses to accept the inevitable. Most of the cast are prolific actors like Alan Ford (Snatch), Michael McKell (Doctors and Emmerable) and Hannah Waddingham (Game of Thrones). Waddingham was the strongest as a psychiatrist in the town and who has a big emotional reveal.

The filmmakers take advantage of their location, especially of the jagged cliffs of Devon. The film was wonderfully photographed by Joao de Silva, the cliffs, and the dream sequences. The filmmakers also take advantage of the historical architecture of Lynton and Lynmouth. However, the film could not hide its budget limitations – the worst example of this was Sara’s intensive care room looked more like it was shot in a care home rather than anything that would be seen in a hospital.

The other issue with the film is some scenes lacked realism. The worst of this was when two detectives raid a building with handguns. This would not be done in the UK because only specially trained officers are allowed to use guns and a specialist team would have gone in. At best the filmmakers were trying to overcome a budget problem, at worst it was laziness. This scene would have been more fitting if it was set outside the UK, in a country where the officers would have been allowed to carry guns.

Winter Ridge is an ambitious film considering its low budget, having a solid police investigation story and personal drama. It is a film for streaming at home.