Gillian Anderson plays Alice, a with-it young single business woman going to a party hosted by her boss in a lavish country retreat reached down a dark wooded forest road. Opting not to go alone, Alice takes young alarm-fitter Adam (Danny Dyer) who happens to be in her flat with tools at the right time.

After hitting it off, the couple decide to make tracks early from the party and they crudely overtake country yokels, speeding past in their fast car on a narrow road. Well ahead, they hit a deer and are forced to stop. Getting out to investigate, the country jokels catch up with them. Will they help? Will they heck. A nightmare for Adam and Alice is just beginning.

Straightheads is a straight no-holds-barred revenge thriller with a screenplay avoiding any degree of subtlety. Apparently inspired by a dream that UK director Dan Reed had, it almost seems like it comes out of the Death Wish series. Couple suffer extreme violence: there's only one course open to them (seemingly).

This is a dark and disturbing thriller alright, but it also lacks humour, style, cleverness and credibility. It also suggests rather too negatively that it's better to take the law into your own hands.

A distasteful (and pretty unbelievable) story then, and performances that are average. Really Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer don't have a lot to do apart from playing their characters straight and they come up with their best moments when they're emotionally scarred. Straightheads' best aspect is the short running time.