This haunting movie may not have won an Oscar – but we cannot wait to get it into our TV test room

When I first watched the trailer for the horror-tinted If I Had Legs I’d Kick You last year, I was immediately counting down the days until it came to cinemas in the UK.

Earlier this week, the day finally arrived when I had the opportunity to watch it on the big screen.

And my wait truly paid off. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is not for the faint-hearted, with each second loaded with unreleased tension and anxiety.

It follows Rose Byrne’s Linda, a burnt-out mother who is struggling to cope with having a child with a chronic illness. When her apartment’s ceiling bursts open and floods the bedroom with water, she and her child are forced to stay at a hotel where her world begins to further unravel.

The film is incredibly claustrophobic, with the camera rarely leaving Linda’s face throughout the runtime. The opening scene, for instance, includes a slow zoom on our protagonist’s face as she talks to her daughter’s doctor. We are let in to every twitch of her mouth, every voice crack and see her every vulnerability.

That’s a great test of your home cinema screen’s levels of detail, as they may look overly soft or go the other way to appear over-etched.

This close feeling is exaggerated by the fact we do not cut to the doctor's face for the entirety of the scene and only hear her disembodied voice, only adding to the film's claustrophobic nature. If your system can place these vocals with good precision and tonality, then it will take this anxiety-inducing feeling to the next level.

Pretty early on, Linda also becomes obsessed with the hole in her drenched apartment’s ceiling. As she gazes into the cavernous abyss, this is a good way to put your TV’s darkness levels to the test, as many sets would portray this as a dark grey rather than a deep black.

Sparkling lights also begin to spiral around the darkness, challenging a system’s contrast abilities.

The film only got recognition in one Oscars category, with Rose Byrne receiving a nomination for best actress, although she was beaten by Jessie Buckley for her show-stopping performance in Hamnet.

Byrne (best known for her comedic performance in Bridesmaids) carries the film, however, with her complex portrayal of a woman who feels completely alone and ultimately feels that she should never have become a mother.

There doesn’t seem to be a 4K physical release of If I Had Legs I'd Kick You coming anytime soon, but a Blu-Ray collector’s edition is expected to ship in May from the A24 shop, complete with Dolby Atmos support. We'll be ordering the disc when we can to challenge the latest TV and AV kit, thanks to its excellent picture and sound offerings.

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