The Voices | DVD review - Scary and sweet: Ryan Reynolds’ charmingly chipper serial killer | Movie Talk | What's on TV

The Voices - Gemma Arterton & Ryan Reynolds

(Image credit: Reiner Bajo)

Ryan Reynolds manages to be both scary and sweet in The Voices, a darkly funny, disarmingly weird horror-comedy about a mentally ill factory worker who embarks upon an accidental killing spree. Egged on by his talking cat, charmingly chipper paranoid schizophrenic Jerry commits some very grisly acts – which is bad news for his co-workers Fiona (Gemma Arterton) and Lisa (Anna Kendrick), and long-suffering therapist (Jacki Weaver). That he retains our sympathy amid the gore is largely down to Reynolds’ goofy charm, abetted by the film’s colourfully cartoony look, an in-your-face mix of surrealism and kitsch created by Iranian-born director Marjane Satrapi, best-known for the Oscar-nominated animated feature Persepolis. The sight of severed heads in a fridge is deliciously sick, though it won’t, needless to say, be to all tastes.

Certificate 15. Runtime 101 mins. Director Marjane Satrapi.

The Voices is released on DVD Blu-ray & Steelbook by Arrow Films on Monday 13 July. http://youtube.com/v/2fKu_NMbNKM

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.