One has to admire the ambition of Dan Pringle's debut feature, a horror film that seeks to combine multifaceted social commentary about class, racial prejudice, and the pursuit of profit at any cost, together with genre chills. Set in the English coastal city of Bournemouth, K-Shop centers on Salah (Ziad Abaza), a young Turkish-British man who returns home from college to help his ailing father at the family's kebab diner. Salah finds the neighborhood inundated with crowds of drunken, drug-addled revelers every night, and when his father dies in an altercation, the initially reserved and shy boy strikes back, turning into a modern-day Sweeney Todd—killing especially obnoxious ruffians and serving up the edible portions of their corpses to his customers while disposing of the remnants in the ocean. His vigilante work ultimately brings him up against Jason (Scot Williams), a reality-show star who has turned his winnings into a drug empire centered in a nearby church. The primary strength of K-Shop lies in Abaza's performance as Salah, a complex character driven by righteous anger but conflicted about the defensibility of his actions. But at nearly two hours, the movie drags, and it unfortunately fizzles at the close. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
K-Shop
Breaking Glass, 115 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99 Volume 33, Issue 2
K-Shop
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