Sion (Craig Russell) is actually a pretty nice guy, despite being a serial killer. At the beginning of the film Protein, we meet him as he is returning to South Wales after serving a stint in the military. Haunted by flashbacks from his service, and pretty much rejected by society, Sion runs afoul of a local drug cartel and triggers both a turf war and a murder investigation. So much for keeping a low profile. Writer director Tony Burke and co-writer Mike Oughton craft an engrossing, often comical, consistently entertaining horror hybrid Protein that scoffs at conventional tropes with mostly positive results.
At first returning to home, Sion finds a cheap room to rent from Katrina (Kezia Burrows) at a local gym. The two recognize each other as being in a bad spot and the two quickly form a friendship. While managing her gym, Katrina gets attacked by a regular customer Fitz (Jamie Kenna) who has a huge ego and a nasty temper. That’s when Sion’s cravings and sense of justice kick in. Sion not only murders Fitz, but stores his parts, in a freezer… for food. This would just be a macabre example of justice served, but Fitz was the head of a bumbling drug cartel. His murder sparks a police investigation led by Carl (Andrew Lennon) and Patch (Andrea Hall) in addition to an underground drug war. While Carl and Patch chase down the suspects, Fitz’s old crew is treading water with their payload in hand, struggling with what to do next. Who knew that the murder of a person no one liked would cause such chaos?
Protein has a lot of very good things going for it. Too many, really. With the mass of threads to the film, Burke and Oughton struggle to keep the action moving. That’s not to say it’s boring. Quite the opposite, in fact. The scenes featuring the remnants of Fitz’s crew are hilarious. Kevin (Steve Meo), Big Tim (Richard Elis) and Nik (Ross O’Hennessy) are left with a pile of drugs and no real plan on what to do next. Countering their sheer stupidity are Carl and Patch who have their own more dramatic arch as they uncover the criminal underbelly of Wales. Then there’s Sion, who blends his victim’s meat into a frothy pink mix of human flesh and milk in between workouts while considering a romance with Katrina. Protein feels like an episodic that has been patched together to form one 90 minute movie. This never really works as the formats are so different. A series has the luxury of dedicating a chapter to a single character or pivotal moment. Here, director Burke wants to share multiple stories but he struggles with focus. Thank goodness all of the stories are interesting.
Russell is sufficient as the quiet loner with a nasty secret. Yet it’s the supporting players who really stand out. As the investigators, Lennon and Hall deliver a fascinating chemistry as their two characters start off at odds and somehow find common ground. Burrows is very good in what could have been a throw away performance as the hard working single mom willing to help a stranger. But it’s Meo that steals every scene as the nervous mama’s boy who ends up with the lucrative contraband. He is hilarious.
Protein is worth the watch for the sum of its parts and for stories worth watching. It’s at once a grisly serial killer movie, an engrossing procedural, and a comical crime farce. The pieces don’t exactly come together like they should but it’s still a fun watch.
