X: NIGHT OF VENGEANCE - The title brings a more trashy kind of B-movie to mind, but 'X: Night of Vengeance' is a fairly downbeat and sobering experience, dispensing quickly with its slick erotic-thriller carapace and heading for the gutter where the real action is. It follows the (soon entwined) stories of two women at opposite ends of the prostitution spectrum - Holly, a well connected courtesan and Shay, a desperate teenage runaway. They end up embroiled in a scenario involving drug money and a violent, corrupt cop. Some have pointed out the thin plot and a lack of substance beneath the grit, but I found it engrossing, intense and surprisingly moving in places. There are also some really depressing scenes in a flea pit hotel, where Shay gives a rattling junkie a lesson in venapuncture learned from her mother. In fact, although the film is quite stylishly made, it has a grindingly (and appropriately) desolate atmosphere. And it's only a quid at £Land!
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