Release Date – 4th April 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 29 minutes, Director – Jed Hart
When Nicky (Lyndsey Marshall) starts to lose sleep with her new neighbour’s nightly parties her attempts to calm things down lead to further torment.
In an age of social horror films Restless may be the most everyday. It’s also one of the most terrifying. As middle-aged nurse Nicky (a stunning Lyndsey Marshall) loses sleep with the noise created by her new neighbour’s nightly parties the torment grows when she tries to find some resolve, with nobody else in the road wanting to get involved.
Every decision leads to a seat-gripping, squirm-inducing sense of panic that the worst is going to happen. When she finally starts to drift off in the middle of the day, the only time it’s quiet, we see Nicky dreaming that young neighbour Deano (Aston McAuley) has crept into her home to stab her. While this moment is fantasy as the situation escalates and both parties grow increasingly heated in their responses to respective actions the threat rapidly increases. After one specific sequence of revenge the consequences see Deano almost breaking down Nicky’s door in a fit of rage, screaming through the letterbox and creating pure terror as Marshall’s character tries to hide.
Writer-director Jed Hart, in his feature debut, keeps everything stripped-back and naturalistic. It heightens the everyday sense of the horror, bringing in an air of familiarity as a story of nightmare neighbours jumps to worst case scenarios while still maintaining a believable atmosphere. Allowing for the tension to be ramped up as Nicky begins to fear for her life, becoming increasingly desperate in a fight she seems to be facing by herself – all while still facing the loss of her mother who used to live next door to her.
Marshall brilliantly captures the stress, panic and rising anger in her character as a war of quiet and noise breaks out with McAuley’s increasing aggression. The way she holds herself brings in the sympathy as you can see the toll the lack of sleep is plaguing on her. Alongside Hart they create the engaging world of realistic horror with great effect, making for a wonderful pay-off which completely flips the coin and is a pure joy to watch unfold.
Yet, we have to go through the relentlessly scary build-up to get there. The confirmation of her worst fears adds an emotional side to what she goes through, segueing from pure suspense into the emotion instead of suddenly just moving on. It helps with the flow and overall engagement to be found within Restless. Packing a lot into the short 89-minute run-time while not breaking or deviating for the horror genre that it sets itself up with.
Throughout I sat physically reacting to the panic and tension drawn out in a number of sequences, fearing the worst for the central character. Almost muttering as I willed her on to just go back and not go ahead with her in-the-moment impulses. I’m sure that this will be one of the scariest films of the year.
Bound to be one of the most terrifying films of the year, Restless is packed with suspense that plays into our own fears of worst case scenarios, wonderfully captured by Lyndsey Marshall’s growing anger and panic.
Just A Little Bit Random 