MacFadyen's performance is the centrepiece of Middletown and he delivers with gusto, throwing himself into a terrifying performance full of psychotic quirks. Whether killing rodents in the church or "cleansing" himself with steel wool, the Pride And Prejudice star proves remarkably unsettling, banishing the spirit of Mr Darcy once and for all.

Kirk and writer Daragh Carville serve him well, giving the movie an out-of-time, mythic setting that's very atmospheric. Kirk's camera plays up the dead-end claustrophobia of the village and the results are resolutely grim: rain, flock wallpaper and dank poverty signalling a vision of rural misery that taps into the western genre; Ulster's answer to Pale Rider perhaps.

Yet, as Gabriel's religious mania evolves into outright insanity, the film becomes uncertain about where it's heading and increasingly feels like a television drama. MacFadyen's performance is boxed in by the screenplay's limited scope. There's little sense of development to his character (he's patently psychotic rather than misguided) and those looking for insight into religious mania will be left disappointed.

Straddling melodrama and Gothic horror, Middletown never works out which it's trying to be and eventually becomes less about religion and more about a rather forgettable kind of ordinary madness.