ABOVE THE KNEE (2024)

3 stars

Blue Finch Film Releasing. U.K. premiere at FrightFest 25th August. Digital 8th September

A cliff face. A bloodied rock falling. Cut to Amir (Freddy Singh) tightening a leather belt around his upper thigh. He glugs alcohol then takes a saw and begins cutting. It’s a nightmare… he awakens and his girlfriend Kim (Julie Abrahamsen) checks he’s okay.

When she goes off to work, he goes to a locked room and works on a painting of him without his left leg and in a wheelchair. He also practices sitting in an actual wheelchair with his left leg tucked under him. Rather odd behaviour.

He has Body Integrity Disphoria (BID) and wants to get rid of his left leg as it feels wrong to him. Watching a television show they see Rikke Olsen (Louise Waage Anda) talking about it – she wishes she was born blind. It can mean people with the condition wish they were born without an arm or leg, and many feel the solution is to actually become disabled – his girlfriend understandably thinks it’s weird.

Amir rings a future date on a calendar and begins to plan ‘the accident’ and reaches out to Rikke and goes to talk to her – she role plays her disability. She tells him very few go through with actually handicapping themselves and that it should look like an accident because of social attitudes and she will help him with his… Will Amir go through with it?

Whilst this used the imagery and sounds of horror, almost teasingingly, this is more a study of somebody suffering from some kind of mental aberration and a singular obsession and, much like director Viljar Bøe’s previous film GOOD BOY (2022), this is strikingly odd. I preferred that outing to this latest film, with the script by Boe and star Singh feeling dragged out, moving to what we assume is the inevitable ending.

Steve Kirkham