Deep End

Jane Asher - Susan
John Moulder-Brown - Mike
Karl Michael Vogler - Swimming Instructor
Christopher Sandford - Fiance
Louise Martini - Prostitute
Erica Beer - Baths Cashier
Diana Dors - Lady Client

Jerzy Skolimowski's second English-language film is this hauntingly disturbing erotic thriller that starts out slowly but gradually builds to an uneasy and tragic climax. Deep End captures the sense of impending dread and spiritual breakdown in Swinging London at the end of the decade like no other film. The story of obsessive teenage angst has a terrific soundtrack provided by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens and seminal German band Can.

Mike (John Moulder-Brown), is an introverted 15-year-old from a working class background that has recently finished school. Because he cannot find other work he takes a job as an attendant at the Newford public baths in the suburbs of London. There he meets an attractive red-headed co-worker, Susan (Jane Asher), who is a little bit older and more worldly wise. The impressionable teenager develops a crush on Susan, but the cruel tease pulls him near and then pushes him away, slowly toying with his adolescent fervour. His emotional immaturity begins to tell when he struggles to come to terms with her rejection, permissive lifestyle and affair with a sleazy married swimming instructor. Fuelled by frustration and obsessive love, he stalks Susan and her lover through the seedy strip clubs of London by night, but his plot to sabotage their relationship ends with tragic consequences.