Odyssey Review (Frightfest 2025)
Gerard Johnson’s gritty urban thriller, Odyssey, amplifies the greed and ruthlessness of the London property market into a cacophony of bloody violence.
Ambitious cocaine and champagne enthusiast Natasha Flynn has grand plans for her beloved estate agency. However, her life starts to unravel due to the vicious vultures circling her success. Struggling with the dry socket aftermath of dental surgery, bullied by volatile sociopaths, and plagued by motivational meme-spouting dickheads, she has no choice but to seek out The Viking, a methodical killing machine from her shadowy past.
The realist approach of Odysseyย is engrossing. Somewhere in the netherworld between a fly on the wall documentary and Loachian social commentary, it flirts lovingly with London’s underbelly and cavorts openly with property business stereotypes. Emotional manipulation and mercenary deal closing drive the narrative, and our antiheroine Natasha is just as cold-hearted. Her staff are more sympathetically portrayed, yet the film suggests it’s just a matter of time before they become property parasites.
Key to the film’s accessibility is whether we can be coerced into caring about such a self-serving lead character, and Odysseyย achieves this on two frontsโone as macavellian as she is and another more nuanced gambit. Firstly, Natasha’s problems, both physical and mental, are piled up in such a brutal and identifiable way that we become swept up in the resulting panic attacks and reach a natural status of underdog-driven empathy. It’s a simplistic strategy that would have Lars von Trier re-adjusting his nutsacks, but it works in terms of salvaging audience affinity.
More subtle are the fleeting nods to a murky family life that gives Natasha’s callous drive context. Although we are only fed slivers of backstory, they suffice in creating a psychological profile of a woman for whom success is the primary directive. For Natasha, making it big is as much about independence and self-affirmation as an eyewatering bank balance. The film does a fine job of conveying the obsessive thrust of capitalism, with Natasha so enslaven to her phone that she might as well have its headset surgically implanted. It stays in situ so often as to be almost iconic in strict contrast to The Viking, who will only interact with payphones.
Natasha is reluctant to deploy her old acquaintance, and the search to unearth him throws up some queasy sequences. Once she accepts what must be done, she embraces the challenge with a reticent stoicism that throws light on her complex persona and ingrained survival instincts. Upon being given choices during the ensuing carnage, she behaves compassionately, implying that the magnetic draw of avarice had desensitised her moral compass.
The final reel of Odyssey is as satisfying as it is brutal. Nasty and bloody, it ties up loose ends like lambs in a slaughterhouse. Suspension of belief is a prerequisite, but that’s forgivable when the just desserts have such a gruesome cherry on the top.
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English Premiere At FrightFest on 25th August/ Rebecca Calder, Tom Davis, Mikael Persbrandt, Peter Ferdinando / Dir: Gerard Johnson ย / 15 / Icon Film Distribution
Odysseyย has its London Premiere at FrightFest before releasing in UK cinemas from 7th November
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