Body at Brighton Rock (2019) is the first full-length feature film directed (and written) by Roxanne Benjamin, and it demonstrates that she is indeed a horror director to watch. Benjamin has also written and directed the “Don’t Fall” segment of the excellent all-female horror anthology XX (2017), which I review here. She also directed and co-wrote the “Siren” segment of Southbound (2015), reviewed here. Both of these provocative short films demonstrate what seem to be emerging themes of Benjamin’s work: a seamless blending of the supernatural and the psychological—especially when it comes to vulnerable (e.g., frightened, guilty) characters; and a preoccupation with landscape and the ways in which open, desolate land presses on characters’ weaknesses.
