Felicia’s Journey – 1999 | 116 mins | Thriller, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Felicia, a young Irish girl, travels to England in search of Johnny Lysaght, the boy who has made her pregnant. In Birmingham, she encounters Mr Hilditch, a factory catering manager, who helps her search around the local industrial estates for the lawnmower factory where she believes Johnny works; in reality, however, Johnny has joined the British army, just as Felicia’s disapproving father had told her. Hilditch lives alone, haunted by the memory of his mother Gala, a television cook of the 50s, whose programmes he watches obsessively on video; he is also a compulsive befriender of teenage girls, whose confessions he also has on tape. Felicia is given shelter by Miss Calligary, an evangelist, but is thrown out again when she reports the loss of her money, which Hilditch has stolen.

She turns to Hilditch, who pretends to have an ill wife in hospital. Felicia moves in only to find that Hilditch’s wife has supposedly died. He persuades Felicia to have an abortion. On their return to the house, he drugs her; she realises that he has killed all the other girls in his life. While digging a grave in his back garden, Hilditch is interrupted by a visit from Miss Calligary.