Black Church Bay Review: It Doesn’t Get More Tense

Black Church Bay puts newcomer Rhys Marc Jones on the map with an intense character study that stands out as one of the best dramas of the year.

Jasper, played by an always charming Joe Locke (who is very on his game this year with Heartstopper Forever and Elsinore), is a very confident character. Everyone at school knows him, even if they don’t have anything positive to say. His friends, classmates and teachers start to head into a spiral when he vanishes, with his family in complete distress at every new bit of information. Secrets start to come out that paint him in a light that hasn’t been shown before, leading the police down new avenues to explore, and leaving Barry (Tom Cullen, of Zebra Girl) to steer the conversation away from him when he’s asked questions he has to lie about. 

Black Church Bay works on a multitude of levels, but the way in which it creates a tense atmosphere through its incredible direction and writing make it stand out. Rhys Marc Jones has crafted one of the most intense drama films of the year in his debut feature. There’s never a point in the script where you know what corner it’s going to turn, leaving you on the edge of your seat for the entire 107 minute runtime. It gives you time to come up with your own conspiracies about Jasper, but just as you do, something else will happen.  It’s rare for a film to be this unpredictable.

A standout performance from Cullen makes Black Church Bay come alive. There’s so much grit and intensity to his portrayal of Barry as this slightly insecure character that harbours a private life behind his girlfriend Kelly (Marli Siu, of Wicker). He’s very secretive but in a way that makes no one look twice at him. He can get away with everything, it seems. Maybe he doesn’t know exactly what happened to Jasper, but he was the last one to spend any time with him. 

It kind of plays out like the beginning of a Mark Jenkin movie (small village on the coast, something’s about to go wrong) but develops into its own as the story progresses. The relationship Jasper and Barry have isn’t something that’s usually on our screens either. It’s in vain of Call Me By Your Name, but definitely not inspired by it. Tonally, it’s more like a Gone Girl vibe: bleak, intense, and really enthralling. There’s an abundance of British thrillers on TV that play into similar themes, but to have a film like this is uncommon. 

There’s little that doesn’t work, other than it not being long enough to get to know some of the characters. But the study of Barry and the way he reacts to the unravelling of Jasper’s disappearance make it more of a character analysis of him than anyone else, so it’s not necessary for a deep-dive into everyone. Jones has been able to put himself on the map straight away as a great director from the get go, Black Church Bay deserves to be the film to get a conversation talking around the themes it’s centred around. Go in blind; it’s worth it to not know anymore than the simple logline. 

Black Church Bay was screened at the BFI London Film Festival on 15-18 October, 2026. Vertigo Releasing will distribute the film in U.K. and Irish cinemas in Spring 2027.