"The Blades"

31 May 2023

6 mins 40s

The Blades

As Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers once sang, the waiting is the hardest part. Charlotte Ritchie ('Ghosts', 'You') is pushed to the limit in this promo for ‘The Blades’, the latest noise epic from Squid. When a bored child wrecks the ticket queue system in a public building, Ritchie must wait until number 458 flashes up on the screen.

While the unmoved clerk enters low-power mode, an engineer attempts to fix the automatic doors, and the janitor ignores a coffee spill, Ritchie tries to occupy herself in a bureaucratic limbo. She watches herself on a CCTV monitor, but only certain movements appear on screen.

Even when Ritchie pretends to be in a grassy field, the janitor 'follows' her and empties a nearby bin. She responds to these uncanny events with bemused glances and mild resignation, as the only thing that matters is—you guessed it—the number 458.

One can picture wry smiles from the likes of Franz Kafka and Douglas Adams, as director Kasper Häggström refuses to let Ritchie make a smooth getaway. The coda on a bus is hilarious and traumatic in equal measure.

UK

Promos