Poison Arrows

Writers: Simon Sprackling, Mark Augustyn and Chris England

Director: Simon Sprackling

Has the world been crying out for a darts mock-doc? Well maybe and Simon Sprackling certainly delivers a movie that fans of this often-overlooked sport will adore. For everyone else, there is plenty of intrigue, larger than life characters and clever scene setting in Poison Arrows to keep you watching and the darts world proves fertile ground for a competition and redemption story even though Sprackling slights loses focus as the tale unfolds.

Ex-darts champion Rocky Goldfingers has served nearly 10-years in prison for the alleged murder of rising star The Poison Arrow whose body has never been found. Protesting his innocence, Rocky agrees to be the subject of a documentary which explore his careers, the fateful incident that almost ended it and a long hoped-for return to competitive darts. But is filmmaker Lewis’ subject relatable and are Rocky’s old colleagues ready to forgive?

The most important part of a mockumentary is tone and Poison Arrows retains its fly-on-the-wall style pretty well throughout the movie, capturing both the unfolding consequences of Rocky’s return and the process of making the faux documentary itself. That events start to go wrong for Lewis who is under pressure from his own team and an angry producer add an extra dimension enhancing the story’s feeling of being filmed over a number of years and the months following Rocky’s release. Into this Sprackling weaves stock footage from filmed dance competitions and footage of his characters captured originally 20 years ago for another movie which was never finished and adds to the supposed authenticity of the documentary style.

The story itself, penned by Sprackling with Mark Augustyn and Chris England, starts off well, recapping the events of the past and exploring Rocky’s final months in prison along with the friends he’s made. The intimidating influence he has over others is an important part of this character designed to cast doubt on his assertions of innocence, and overall the writers present Rocky’s scenarios well along with the official and candid presentation of his relations with Lewis who is clearly in over his heard. The two concepts work effectively together and the build-up to the whodunnit is well managed.

But the film loses tractions once Rocky is on the outside and becomes almost too self-aware as a result. Although at 95-minutes this is by no means a long film, the second half does start to drag as having established that Rocky is not all he seems, there is nowhere else for Poison Arrows to go and several versions of the same scene are played out without advancing the story as Rocky becomes even less reliable and Lewis gets drawn further into his lifestyle.

There are some good performances from Geoff Bell as the sinister former darts pro and Ben Gardner Gray as his filmmaker who should have little in common but somehow become enthralled with one another. They never make the performances too knowing either which maintains the mock style well although it would have been nice to see more of Ralf Little’s “Poison Arrow” who never speaks but whose debut entrance onto the darts scene is a great comedy moment originally filmed in 2003.

Ultimately too much time is spent on the journey which creates a rushed and unsatisfactory final act that leaves too much unanswered. But darts fans will love seeing their favourite sport onscreen

Poison Arrows will be in UK cinemas from 20th December and will be available on Digital Download from 3rd January.