DigitalRevenantX7 CAUTION: Possible plot spoilers present.In the remote girl's boarding school of Lady Margaret Oaks, young student Louise Thompson is having an affair with the artist husband of the headmistress Veronica Van Huet. The affair is discovered but Veronica forgives Louise, inviting her to stay in the school over the holidays in order to work on school play that she had been setting up. At the same time, Veronica's husband, Matthew Van Huet is under increasing pressure to forge his artist father's signature on his own works in order to gain more funds for the school. But one day Matthew disappears without trace. Alone in the foreboding mansion & with only Veronica & her doctor friend for company, Louise begins to suspect that Matthew is probably dead & that Veronica is responsible.Out of Bounds is a cheap but relatively classy British thriller that was made as sort of a British version of POISON IVY with a few touches of SINGLE WHITE FEMALE thrown in for narrative kicks. The film is directed by Merlin Ward & stars his wife Sophie as the "evil" headmistress.The film is something of an obscure effort – copies of the film are hard to find & it hasn't been widely seen. But having said that, Out of Bounds is actually quite interesting in its own right. The script has clearly been written to accommodate a low budget – singular location for most of the running time; very few actors; little in the way of effects & so on. Ward does a reasonable job of conducting suspense on this shoestring budget & even gets in a few good twists, although the end revelation that George Asprey faked his death in order to get back at his wife is a little anticlimactic. The acting is good for the film's type, with Sophia Myles & Sophie Ward making a good team & Celia Imrie has a wonderfully polite but nasty underneath demeanor that will send shivers down your spine.

dancolbourne I thought the previous reviewer was harsh - yes, you don't expect the twist at he end (a sad one to be fair!) but I thought there was plenty of tension created who didn't feel desperate for Louise as she was stalked around that dark school?? Louise (Sophia Myles) was excellent - having not seen her before I'll join the chorus of praise and predictions that she'll go all the way to the top - this was a convincing performance, full of intelligence.thought the soundtrack worked pretty well and the empty private school in the middle of nowhere was the perfect set up for a 'shining' type descent into hell for Louise

colmmeaneyfan Some of the comments on this film seem a little unreasonable. This is an enjoyable and refreshing take on clichés within the terror genre, and the actresses are particularly good and make it well worth watching.Somebody made a comment about this being similar to the Hammer House of Horror TV series, and I'd agree with that and say it's a pretty good summation of the feel of the story. How refreshing to see a story that doesn't charge forward with an alpha male in the lead, and that doesn't make it's heroines into soppy losers. This is a really fun horror, doesn't amp up any violence gratuitously, does a good job of creating it's mood and whilst I wouldn't recommend going out of one's way to find it, it's worth the time.One quibble, which would seem fair, Michael Elphick, god rest his soul, is wasted. Looks like this was his last role.

Kevin Lynch This film is well acted, especially by it's two attractive leads, Sophie Ward and Sophia Miles. Two better known actors, at least to me, are in support roles - Celia Imrie and Michael Elphick.The action takes place in a remote location (a girl's boarding school during the holidays) and has an Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Indians' / 'And Then There Were None' atmosphere to it. The twists come thick and fast and I believe too often. The film seems to slip in and out of being a supernatural thriller and in the end I am unsure whether it was supposed to be or not. Perhaps a second viewing would tie up a few loose ends.I have scored this movie 5/10 but it deserves higher for it's acting.Spoilers: The character Michael Elphick played was introduced as such an unimportant, yet filler role, that a British audience would expect he would have an impact on proceedings later on. He did, but in a story of so many twists, it impact was diluted.