The Acid House

The Acid House is a British anthology film made up of three stories, all adapted by Irvine Welsh from his own collection of short stories. The segments centre on young men in and around Edinburgh, mixing dark comedy with bleaker drama as their lives take strange turns. One follows Boab, whose fortunes collapse after a poor showing in a football match, leaving him unemployed and single, and whose path crosses a man claiming to be God. Another concerns Coco Bryce, drifting through football, raves and drug use. A third turns surreal in its treatment of marriage and children. Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd and Stephen McCole lead a cast that also includes Jemma Redgrave, Martin Clunes and Maurice Roëves, with 35 credited cast members and 61 credited crew.

Paul McGuigan directed; the film was his first, released at the end of 1998, and he went on to direct seven further features, among them Gangster No. 1 and Lucky Number Slevin. Alex Usborne and David Muir produced, and the production involved Film4 Productions, Umbrella-Rosenblum Film Production and Picture Palace North.

Audience responses were moderate rather than enthusiastic: the film holds a rating of 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb from around 8,300 votes and the same score on TMDB from 144 votes. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 19 reviews places it close to those audience scores, suggesting a similarly mixed reception across both groups.