Ten of Swords
2023 · 16m · United Kingdom
Directed by Faye Jackson
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, provocative
The dead are revolting: zombified workers — twentysomething 'head zombie' Jay, middle-aged Michelle, and elderly Mary — do the rubbish jobs no one else wants to do, spurred by raw steak and electric cattle prods, in a blunt satire of capitalism and the gig economy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A zombie gig-economy satire that could've been toothless agitprop, but Jackson leans into the grotesque absurdity instead—the cattle prods and raw meat aren't metaphors, they're the actual texture of the thing, which is exactly the kind of "wait, WHAT?" escalation that makes consensus taste look cowardly.
Jackson positions herself within a lineage of British social satire and Body Horror comedy, but the formal rigor here—the deadpan blocking, the way she cuts between the workers' degradation and management obliviousness—feels less concerned with tradition than with proving she can execute it without winking.
The singular choice is the casting against type: watching a twentysomething carry the 'head zombie' role with actual gravitas amid the absurdity transforms what could've been broad slapstick into something genuinely unsettling, and that tonal friction does more work than the premise itself.
Reviews
This is very funny, extremely pertinent and rather moving, with lovely performances from Theo Solomon as twentysomething "head zombie" Jay, Lara Belmont as middle aged Michelle, and Mary Benn as the elderly, bemused but later accepting zombie Mary. Ten of Swords was also my favourite of all the films: at a quarter of an hour it is jam packed with terrific lines, and manages to be both a total hoot and an at times uncomfortable watch.