Director: Rhys Edwards
In 1985, Great Britain (and the small North Wales village of Tywyn in particular) was shocked and horrified when unassuming minister, The Reverend Emyr Owen, was arrested for some pretty bizarre crimes. The press had a field day with such strange activities being undertaken by a man of the cloth, and Owen was subsequently imprisoned. This talking heads documentary features large chunks of dramatized enactments of Owen’s life and crimes as the sordid story unfolds.
Identified through handwriting as the author of a series of unpleasant and often threatening anonymous letters, Owen was visited and questioned at his home by Detective Constable Gwyn Roberts. As part of this questioning Roberts enquired about Owen’s sexuality and proceeded to search the house, leading to the discovery of gay pornography, books on torture and masochism, and boxes containing photographic slides of three severed penises. It is subsequently revealed that Owen himself removed these from three corpses pre-burial, experimented on and photographed them in his kitchen, and then disposed of them by, among other methods, feeding one to seagulls.
This shocking discovery is the dramatic highlight of the tale, but unfortunately for this documentary, it is all revealed within the first half hour. The remaining hour follows the aftermath of Owen’s arrest, as well as going back over his life to try and understand what led him to such perverse actions. However, this doesn’t hold much in the way of insight or interest and can’t possibly live up to the salacious first act. Cod psychology is used to try and reverse engineer Owen’s psyche but since he was an incredibly private man, there isn’t much to work with.
A couple of sections of the post-arrest section of the film do offer some interesting aspects of the case. One is a look at things from a legal point of view and the fact that as far as the law was concerned, the removal of penises from corpses is not actually a crime. Also, the film looks at homosexuality in the 60s to the 80s in Britain tries to conclude that Owen’s crimes may have been a result of extreme repression and guilt, although no real conclusions are drawn.
One big question that remains unanswered is what made policeman Gwyn Roberts ask Owen about his sexuality, sexual proclivities and then search his house when he was simply there to accuse him of writing the anonymous letters? This question is even asked by one contributor, but then never answered – particularly frustrating when Roberts is extensively interviewed throughout the film.
As far as the extensive dramatizations are concerned, they are decently produced but are used far too much, and in a lot of instances, completely unnecessary. One scene shows Roberts calling Owen’s house and not getting an answer – yes, it was felt that this should be dramatized. There is also an odd scene played three times which posits that Owen (played by Eilir Jones) would solicit in public toilets, and shows the three possible outcomes from such an encounter (sex, arrest or a beating). These scenes are obviously there to pad the runtime, but are so incongruous that many are unintentionally hilarious, and large chunks of this film come across like scenes from Chris Morris’s Brass Eye. One in particularl featuring Owen strutting around in sunglasses is mind-bogglingly stupid.
Owen always declared that he wasn’t in total control when he was committing his crimes, and described a “Bad Emyr” and a “Good Emyr”. This documentary is similarly duplicitous, presenting an interesting story (albeit not one that has enough to warrant a 90 minute runtime) with frequently laughable attempts at sensationalism.
The Rev premieres exclusively on the Icon Film Channel from 9 October. Followed by all major UK digital platforms from 8 January 2024.
