Tag: horror

The Tunnel

In 2007, the New South Wales government unveiled a radical solution to Sydney’s water crisis. Capitalising upon the vast network of tunnels underneath the city, the Water Minister announced the acquisition of recycling infrastructure to make use of millions of litres of water trapped in underground reservoirs. When the project fades from view shortly afterwards, television journalist Natasha (Bel Deliá, TV’s I Rock) begins to investigate the apparent inaction. Her interest is piqued when rumours of the displacement of the homeless inhabitants of the tunnels start to circulate, as well as stories of mysterious disappearances. Stonewalled at every turn by government employees determined to keep the media away, Natasha is convinced the answers lay beneath the city. Pursuing the line of enquiry, she finds her own way underneath central train station accompanied by producer Peter (Andy Rodoreda, East West 101), cameraman Steve (Steve Davis, also the cinematographer of the film) and sound technician Tangles (Luke Arnold, The Pacific) , with the sinister subterraneous experience that follows exceeding their most wild and wicked expectations.

It’s no secret that it is notoriously hard to get a film made in Australia, and the absolute drought on genre films coming out of our big brown flat country is indicative of the type of film that tends to get funded locally. The poor box office returns on last year’s The Loved Ones certainly haven’t done the cause any favours, and the only guiding light over the last few years has been the self-funded Undead from Spierig Brothers. Taking a note out of that book,the makers of The Tunnel have opted to crowd-source the money needed for their film as part of The 135K Project. While the film has been released for free online, supporters can buy a frame of the film for as little as a $1, with over 42,000 of the 135,000 available frames sold to date. While the film occasionally betrays its low-budget origins, the same innovative minds that put together a creative source of funding for their film also have a technical prowess to match their financial acumen. The Tunnel is undoubtedly a familiar genre picture, not too far removed from the other ‘found footage’ films that we have seen over the last few years, but the twist here is that we are not following around a single camera that serves as our eyes and ears, but rather we are given multiple perspectives from a fully-realised group of characters.

The Tunnel uses our expectations against us, knowing full well that we are waiting for a at least one cast member to meet a bloody end by the time the night is out. Yet despite this foreknowledge, Ledesma and cinematographers Shing Fung Cheung and Davis create a palpable tension that is often forgotten on bigger budget slasher films. With barely a single drop of blood shed on camera, albeit peppered with some chillingly post-spilled scenes, The Tunnel still accomplishes its primary aim of scaring the bejesus out of any viewer fool enough to watch this alone in a darkened room. Indeed, if you see one of us without our bejesus, it’s probably because it has been scared out of us by The Tunnel. Once the film has led us into its darkened and unyielding corridors of foreboding, it wastes little time in its swift running time in disorienting us and leaving us to fend for ourselves. Carefully choosing what to show us at various points throughout the narrative, the cast of largely unknown actors also bring an authenticity to a film which will gain attention for its innovative funding model, but remain a talking point long after as what is sure to be a cult classic on the horror film circuit.

Those interested in supporting this model of filmmaking will do well to download and donate to the makers of The Tunnel, safe in the knowledge that they are not only contributing to the future of the local industry but in investing a ripper of a horror movie that delivers plenty of thrills in its inescapable world.

The Tunnel was released digitally on May 19, 2011, as well as in selected cinemas, and on television and DVD. Further information is available at http://www.thetunnelmovie.net/.

June 2, 2011
Snowtown

The depiction of true crime tales on screen has oft proven a delicate undertaking, with perfecting the balance of information and emotion a tough task. The feat increases in difficulty when the story involves slaughter of the serial variety, due to the frequently disturbing nature of the real life source. Some fictional films focus on the point of view of the many community members – law enforcement officials and journalists, commonly – seeking answers, whilst others attempt to transport the audience into the mind of the killer. From In Cold Blood to Zodiac, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer to Monster, and Bonnie And Clyde to Summer Of Sam, a vast array of such features have tried to portray mass murder in a multitude of ways, some with more success than others. In the first cinematic depiction of the notorious Australian “bodies in the barrels” murders from the 1990s, director Justin Kurzel’s debut feature Snowtown joins the spate of serial killer films that have come before. Delving into the community where the fatal events occurred, it ponders not only the who, what, when and where of the killings, but more importantly, the how.

In the marginalised locality of Salisbury North in Adelaide, South Australia, the inhabitants are overlooked by the rest of the world. Within the grimy suburban landscape lurks both ordinary folk and citizens of the unpleasant kind, including examples of the latter that prey upon single mother Elizabeth Harvey (Louise Harris, in her first film role) and her three sons. The eldest, sixteen year old Jamie (fellow screen debutant Lucas Pittaway), ambles aimlessly without a strong male influence, subjected to sexual abuse from relatives and acquaintances. When charismatic outsider John Bunting (Daniel Henshall, TV’s Out Of The Blue) arrives spouting rhetoric against his definition of neighbourhood degenerates (suspected homosexuals, paedophiles, drug addicts and other undesirables), both Elizabeth and Jamie are enamoured by his ideology. As time passes by, a father-son relationship emerges between John and Jamie, one filled with vandalism, retaliation, animal cruelty, brutality, torture and ultimately serial murder.

The deeds that the harsh and unforgiving nature of the Australian landscape drives its inhabitants to has long been a theme in Australian cinema, with one of Australia’s first recorded features (The Story of the Kelly Gang) chronicling the most notorious outlaw to capture the nation’s imagination. Little has changed in over a hundred years of film, as gripping human dramas continue to be ripped from the headlines in the multi-award winning Animal Kingdom. Yet while a certain distance can be maintained between the exploits of bushrangers and the local mobsters alike, the events behind Snowtown sent a ripple of terror through the South Australian communities precisely because they came out of their own number. To revisit the anguish caused by these brutal murders whilst still within living memory of their perpetration is to invite accusations of exploitation and sensationalism. Indeed, the only reason that one should attempt such a difficult emotional minefield is to answer a simple question: why? From Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer, along with countless slasher films of the Halloween vein, film has demonstrated that terror (like charity) begins at home. Yet to fully understand how “monsters” are created, one must examine where they came from.

It is from this place that Snowtown begins, examining the suburban angst with an observational lens, choosing not to judge the actions of the characters but simply follow them, and in doing so aims to open a window into their minds. Like the characters it depicts, Snowtown drifts aimlessly from moment to moment, attempting to capture the faceless void that these often savage unfortunates dwell inside. Coupled with Arkapaw’s stark photography, Kurzel comes closest to Terrence Malick’s Badlands at times, but without the beauty that the enigmatic director bestowed upon his killers. In its place is an intense ugliness, a savagery that is not judged, even though to some extent it should be. Almost like a physical barrier between the filmmakers and the audience, Kurzel keeps viewers at a uncomfortable arm’s length, made all the more so by a pounding soundtrack that unnerves the senses. It is difficult, as a result, to fully comprehend what it is Snowtown is trying to say. At the end of the film, after we have experienced impossible anguish alongside both the victims and the killers, we are still no closer to understanding that fundamental question.

Snowtown in undoubtedly a unforgettable film, yet like the crimes upon which it is based, it is often difficult to understand and even harder to watch. Kurzel shows us the place where this terror comes from, but ultimately we are left on our own to find the reasons behind it.

Snowtown is released on May 19, 2011 in Australia by Madman Entertainment.

May 18, 2011
Insidious

Australia’s James Wan and Leigh Whannell burst onto the scene back in 2004 with their debut feature Saw, one of several films that has been credited with spawning the “torture porn” subgenre of horror films. Despite no less than six sequels to this modern classic, and countless imitators in its wake, Wan’s follow-up films Dead Silence and Death Sentence have barely made a ripple in the public consciousness. Former Recovery “film guy” and writer Whannell has made a living with acting gigs, although he has been quoted as saying his primary reason for writing Saw was to get better roles for himself. Insidious sees the team reunite to deliver more scares.

Shortly after Renai (Rose Byrne, Bridesmaids) and Josh (Patrick Wilson, Morning Glory) and their three kids move into their new home, strange things begin to happen. Objects are displaced without explanation and their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins, Revolutionary Road) in particular doesn’t feel comfortable in his room. When Dalton mysteriously goes into a coma, with no medical explanation apparent, Renai determines that it is the house causing problems and uproots the family. However, when the problems intensify, Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey, Black Swan) requests the help of psychic Elise (Lin Shaye, My Sister’s Keeper) to rid them of the phantom menace.

Insidious starts off with a frightening premise, albeit one that seems to have spent liberal amounts of time at the video store browsing at copies of Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Haunting or any number of possessed house/child/mother films of the last few decades. It is in these early moments that Wan and Whannell are at their creepiest, bringing a house to life with groan and creaks that are vaguely reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. Yet it is clear from the boldness of the Insidious titles, quite literally taking up the whole screen and pounding the hell out of the Dolby Surround, that subtlety is not good to be one of Wan’s strong traits in this film. Every spook, spectre or ghost that we glimpse in the early stages of the picture are there for a singular purpose: to make us jump. At this goal, Wan achieves much of what he sets out to do. Using the ubiquitous Rose Byrne’s wide-eyed-deer-in-headlights innocence may be a far cry from Polanski’s vision of a sexually repressed Catherine Deneuve, but she may be something of a spiritual successor (if you can pardon the pun). With Byrne as our de facto eyes and ears, we experience her terror, all the while unsure as to what we are seeing is entirely reliable.

In the back half of the film, things take a turn for the in-silly-ous with the introduction of some new information – and a trio of ghostbusters, no less – that threaten to cut the chords that are tenuously suspending the audience’s disbelief. Then the film proceeds to jump so many sharks that you may be inclined to call the RSPCA to report animal cruelty. The cast performs capably against the odds, although Hershey’s mother here is disappointing less menacing than she was in last year’s Black Swan and the capable young Simpkins is unconscious for much of the film. Until the final act, one-time superhero Wilson (Watchmen) remains conveniently absent, and this device really only serves to leave poor little Byrne alone in the house against a faceless foe. Insidious certainly knows what makes a horror movie tick, throwing classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street into the mix before the credits roll, and on paper this seems like it should have joined that canon. However, devoid of the set-piece shock-tactics of the superior Saw used so effectively over half-a-decade ago, this prowling beast fails to find its host.

The Reel Bits: Even with a decent set-up and a superior cast, Insidious fails to live up to the promise of its strong horror pedigree. Despite the early promise of a sufficiently creepy haunted-house tale, the lack of direction and sheer number of shark-jumps holds this back from being anything more than popcorn fodder.

Insidious was released on 12 May 2011 in Australia from Icon.

May 17, 2011
Mega Piranha

Los Angeles production house The Asylum have become (in)famous over the past few years for shamelessly churning out blatant direct-to-DVD cash-ins on major studio tentpole flicks. Wander into any video store and you’ll find examples of their handiwork on the shelves, bearing such titles as Transmorphers, The Battle of Los Angeles, Street Racer and The Da Vinci Treasure.

Creatively speaking, their work is the cinematic equivalent of those knock-off toys you find in two dollar shops. Their films have the ostensible outward appearance of top-shelf Hollywood product, except that they’re made for around 0.3 percent of a Hollywood budget, and rather than a Matt Damon or Brad Pitt, your leads are more likely to be of the C. Thomas Howell or Lorenzo Lamas variety.

Branching out of the usual mode last year with the monster mash Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, the trailer of which became an online sensation, The Asylum has now diversified into similarly cheapjack creature features, which brings us to the latest addition to Cinema Nova’s Cult Cravings programme, Mega Piranha.

When a boat carrying the U.S. Ambassador (writer-director Eric Forsberg), Venezuelan Foreign Minister and a bevy of bikinied senoritas gruesomely goes down in the Orinoco river, the Yanks send in granite-jawed Special Agent Jason Fitch (Paul Logan) to investigate. Obstructed at every turn by the nefarious Colonel Antonio Diaz (David Labiosa), Fitch becomes aware something, eh, fishy, was responsible for the Ambassador’s grisly demise. Sure enough, a team of American scientists, led by “genetics professor” Sarah Monroe (Tiffany–yes, the eighties pop star Tiffany) have, in their well-meaning attempts to boost the Amazon’s seafood stocks, unleashed an especially voracious breed of piranha on the world. In fact, their genes have been so meddled with, that the damn things double in size when they feed. And they feed a lot. Before long, the world – and more specifically, Florida – is facing the threat of piranhas the size of buses. Piranhas that can take down naval destroyers and helicopter gunships, and are especially good at launching themselves out of the ocean and straight into skyscrapers. Hey, it could happen, right?

As energetic as it is idiotic, Mega Piranha is guaranteed to bludgen your frontal lobe into submission. Played with epic – and epically-wooden – seriousness by all involved, this is a film packed with silly dialogue, middling-to-atrocious special effects, and ambitiously ludicrous set-pieces. Eric Forsberg attempts in vain to mask the miniscule budget with rapid fire edits and Tony Scott-like camera moves (to say nothing of an overly colour-graded visual style), while every character is introduced with swooshing title cards and freeze-frames, even when they’re referred to by name immediately after. Maybe that’s the kind of attention span a film like this is aimed at, I don’t know. It’s hard to expect Michael Bay portentousness to really work when you’ve got scenes of devastated buildings with giant fish sticking out of them, though.

Following Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus‘s casting coup of Debbie “Electric Youth” Gibson, Tiffany demonstrates that she has not yet topped her career defining screen role as the voice of Judy Jetson in 1990’s Jetsons: The Movie. Moreover, Forsberg gives the former poppette acres of bollocks science mumbo-jumbo, which she audibly strains to deliver. And she’s called on to deliver a couple of intense cracking-up-under-pressure scenes as well. Reality TV would actually be more dignified by comparision.

Continuing The Asylum’s tradition of casting former TV stars in unlikely roles (for previous examples, see William Katt in Alien Vs Hunter, and Jaleel “Urkel” White in Mega Shark Vs Crocosaurus), The Brady Bunch‘s Barry Williams (he was Greg Brady, btw) turns up here as Secretary of Defence Bob Grady (Bob Grady = Greg Brady. Geddit?) and, to be fair, he’s actually halfway convincing. That’s not to be confused with actually convincing, but it’s the closest thing to a credible performance in the whole film. Premiering to actually quite respectable ratings on the U.S. SyFy Channel (in fact scoring better numbers than their now-cancelled shows Caprica and Stargate Universe from the same season), this otherwise direct-to-DVD film can now be enjoyed in a cinema – in digital projection, no less – at the Nova.

The Reel Bits: Goofs and production blunders run rampant throughout the film, from extras often looking directly at camera, to a shot repeated some four times during a “tense” scene, to a squad of navy divers all chatting quite easily underwater, despite breather units being jammed in their mouths. But that’s all part of the fun, of course.

Mega Piranha is screening at Cinema Nova Melbourne from April 21, and is distributed by Sharmill Films.

April 20, 2011
Scream 4

As the anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders approaches, Sidney Prescott (Campbell, The Company) journeys back to her home town. On a book tour to promote her chronicle of survival after three successive massacres, she arrives with a pushy publicist (Alison Brie, TV’s Mad Men) and an excess of emotional baggage, with the community on alert for her return.

Sidney’s teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts, Hotel For Dogs) is less than thrilled about her presence, with her pals Kirby (Hayden Panettiere, I Love You, Beth Cooper) and Olivia (Marielle Jaffe, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) dubbing Sid the angel of death. Indeed, just as Sidney steps foot in Woodsboro, a new series of murders rocks the town, with Jill’s classmates the first casualties.

Despite the vigilance of Sheriff Dewey Riley (Arquette, Eight Legged Freaks) and the investigatory skills of his wife Gale Weathers (Cox, Bedtime Stories), the bodies continue to pile up. From horror obsessives Charlie (Rory Culkin, The Chumscrubber) and Robbie (Erik Knudsen, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) to Jill’s pestering ex Trevor (Nico Tortorella, Twelve), lovelorn deputy Judy (Marley Shelton, Planet Terror) to Sidney’s aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell, Donnie Darko), everyone is a suspect, as well as a potential victim.

The impact that the original Scream had on popular culture is incalculable. Almost single-handedly reviving the slasher genre to its former 1980s days of gory glory, sequels and reboots to long-running series Halloween and Friday the 13^th were greenlit on the back of Scream’s success. During one scene in Scream 4, a terrified Kirby (Hayden Panettiere, TV’s Heroes) rattles off a list of the recent horror remakes and reboots in response to a question from killer. “Halloween, Texas Chainsaw, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, House of Wax, Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine! It’s one of those, right?”

Part of the ongoing success of the Scream series is its awareness of its own place in the horror movie canon, and more importantly, why it is better than any of those other sequels or remakes mentioned. The return of screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who stepped aside for the third chapter while lost in the wilderness of teen melodramas Dawson’s Creek and The Vampire Dairies, is a welcome one and injects a much-needed sense of the familiar absent from the sub-par Scream 3. Scream 4 is not simply a sequel or a reboot, but a knowing commentary on the culture of remaking/rehashing/rebooting all art that has come before.

The return of original cast members Campbell, Arquette and Cox instantly evokes nostalgia for the mid-1990s, and Campbell in particular (largely absent from major screen appearances in the last decade) effortlessly picks up from where she left off. Scream 4 takes the familiar, and all of the slasher film conventions that go with it, and cleverly turns it on its head. Even better, when you expect it to turn, it doesn’t – and somehow that is the biggest twist of all. Where this franchise has always distinguished itself is in creating a fully realised, self-aware world, where even the new characters are whole entities and not nubile bodies to be dispatched with scant regard for the well-being of any pets they may have left unfed at home.

Of course, the famous meta and intertextual references abound, and even this (as well as the word ‘meta’) is the topic of dissection. The unmasked killer in the original Scream noted that “Movies don’t make serial killers, they just make serial killers more creative”. The same could be said for the creators of Scream 4. The countless imitators haven’t diminished the power of, and need for, another Scream film: it has just made Craven and Williamson’s powers more apparent.

A sharp, witty and creative return to the slasher genre by the people who dissected and revived it over fifteen years ago. Scream 4 is the final word on modern horror, and fans and Scream virgins alike should make this required viewing. All hail Wes Craven.

Scream 4 was released in Australia on 14 April 2011 by Roadshow Films.

April 15, 2011
Red Riding Hood

With its origins dating back to medieval times, the folk tale known as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Little Red Cap” has enjoyed considerable longevity over the years. First printed in 1967 as “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” in “Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose” by Charles Perrault, it surged in popularity in the nineteenth century courtesy of two storytelling siblings known as the Brothers Grimm (appearing as “Rotkäppchen” in their book “Children’s and Household Tales”).

From that point on, many an author has revisited the tale (including Andrew Lang’s “The Red Fairy Book” and Gillian Cross’ “Wolf”), and many a filmmaker as well. Indeed, the latter category features efforts as diverse as Liza Minnelli TV film The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Riding Hood, Neil Jordan’s The Company Of Wolves, crime thriller Freeway, animated offering Hoodwinked and revenge flick Hard Candy, and now fantasy adaptation Red Riding Hood.

In the small village of Daggerthorn, the lives of the locals are dictated by the ever-present threat of the wolf. Although spared from attacks for two decades, a savage slaying marks the return of the beast to disrupt the quiet of the woodland community. When her older sister is taken as the wolf’s latest victim, the plans of beautiful young Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) are thrown into disarray.

Instead of pursuing her preferred romance with woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), she is forced into an engagement with Henry (Max Irons), the son of the local blacksmith, as a way of paying the debt of her parents (Virginia Madsen and Billy Burke). With the village in fear of another wolf appearance, the services of apparent expert Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) are procured. As he attempts to rid the area of the beast, his suspicions are cast over the locals, with Valerie the object of his greatest misgivings.

Let’s start with a confession. Late last year, we voted Red Riding Hood one of our Most Anticipated Films of 2011. Based on nothing more than a few visually striking preliminary images, it proved to be a bit of wishful thinking. Catherine Hardwicke, director of the woeful yet bafflingly popular Twilight, previously brought us the much edgier Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, and this had all the promise of being a much darker version of the classic tale from Orphan scribe David Johnson.

While there are certainly some nice visual touches to the film, the opening sequences are overblown with light to represent a kind of innocence and storybook tranquility that is soon to be shattered. Hardwick’s obvious lack of sophistication betrays an unease that she appears to have with genuine emotional drama and character interaction, eliciting performances out of her main cast that could be described as wooden if we were feeling generous. Yet it is not entirely her fault: Johnson’s derivative script doesn’t allow any of the characters, particularly the men, to do anything but stand around and posture their chins. Commence the squeals of teenage delight.

Red Riding Hood would like to bill itself as a teen horror film, but is closer to being a clumsy ‘whodunnit’ with a werewolf. The formula plays out without missing a beat, from the star-crossed lovers to the maniacal hunter, and the impressive supporting cast is wasted in this stock-standard emo-fantasy flick that could have just as easily been edited together from Twilight Saga deleted scenes. The male leads are the most insidious, jawing off at each other and recycling each others lines. Shiloh Fernandez was spawned from the same hell hole that manufactured the Robert Pattinson Phenomenon, although at this rate it may be a few years before this dreamboat hits the walls of teenage bedrooms. Amanda Seyfried continues to do that wide-eyed thing she does, and while she is staring like a deer in headlights, it gives Gary Oldman and Julie Christie a chance to wonder why they even turned up.

While it is nice to see Oldman back in a villain role after his excellent portrayal of Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, his villainy really only amounts to torturing the mentally ill and announcing that he killed his wife with alarming regularity. He also appears to be channeling Anthony Hopkins in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. This is faux horror at best, and cookie-cutter filmmaking at worst.

The Reel Bits: Red Riding Hood lives up to its title in the sense that there is a garment of the same name featuring in the film. Yet it is the only distinguishing feature against the otherwise drab, dreary and monotonous background.

Red Riding Hood was released on March 24, 2011 in Australia by Roadshow Films.

March 25, 2011
The Rite

The Exorcist has a lot to answer for. Ever since a little girl’s head spun around spouting pea soup like a lawn sprinkler, it has become the touchstone for all tales of demonic possession over the last four decades. In addition to the two sequels it spawned, it also holds a record for its two prequels (The Exorcist – The Beginning and Dominion – The Exorcist Prequel) being complete remakes of each other starring the same actor. There have been parodies (Leslie Nielsen in Repossessed), and last year’s mockumentary The Last Exorcism. The Exorcism of Emily Rose seemed to mirror many of the themes of The Exorcist, but all of these films have a commonality. The idea that there is a battle being waged between the celestial forces of good and the minions of hell is one as old as religion, and each of these films sets the human body as the battleground.

Mikael Håfström’s The Rite follows this tradition. Michael Kovac (Colin O’Donoghue) is young trainee priest in the midst of a crisis of faith. Rather than follow in the footsteps of his mortician father (Rutger Hauer, Hobo with a Shotgun), Michael has undertaken four years of training in a seminary to become a priest. When he decides to tell his superiors that he is leaving, he is sent for a bit of a Catholic priest boot camp at the Vatican and taught all about demonic possession and exorcism. Still a skeptic, Father Xavier (Ciarán Hinds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1) directs Michael to the eccentric Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins, The City of Your Final Destination) for some hands-on experience.

Didn’t Anthony Hopkins retire? There doesn’t seem to have been much pause in the works of Sir Tony, but what he has made up for in quantity he has lacked in quality. After a lamentable appearance in The Wolfman, and a spot in Woody Allen’s forgettable You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Hopkins continues to have no sense of shame as he gets set to don celestial armour as the god of thunder’s dad Odin in the forthcoming Thor. We may never know exactly where it all went wrong for Hopkins, but ever since The Silence of the Lambs (or more accurately, Hannibal and Red Dragon), the refined acting we know from The Remains of the Day has been replaced with wide-eyed mugging and lip-smacking insanity. It’s actually quite wonderful to watch, as a revered Oscar-winning actor throws caution and convention to the wind and gives a balmy performance that he is clearly having a lot of fun with. At least somebody is having fun, as everybody else seems to be going through the motions and plodding through this fairly standard supernatural thriller. Colin O’Donoghue is fairly new to the big screen, and while he provides a fairly accessible and likeable persona to guide the audience through the familiar turf, his character is far from rounded and really only has two modes: emotionally crippled skeptic and soldier of god.

The Rite is really three movies: the crisis of faith film, the supernatural scares film and the film that is blatantly ripping off The Exorcist. For the last part, the ‘based on a true story’ title card seems to be a licence for every film to borrow liberally from William Friedkin’s classic, or to throw logic out the window in favour of cheap scares. The first part of the film, in which Kovacs explores his own faith and the nature of the relationship with his father, is actually a captivating story. Indeed, it almost seems as though this is the movie that they wanted to tell until someone chickened out and declared “We better throw in a demon mule if this thing is going to work”. Once the supernatural is introduced, and the film completely shifts gears into b-movie territory, the film relies on cheap scares, Lynchian dream sequences and nonsensical non sequiturs to keep the audience on its toes. When Michael Patroni’s script finishes playing around the edges, we finally get the old-school exorcisms that we were promised on the back of the box. Earlier in the film, Hopkins’ character quips “What were you expecting? Spinning heads and pea soup?”. By the time the film reaches its familiar finale, these may have actually lifted The Rite above the run-of-the-mill thrills we get here.

The Reel Bits: A promising premise gives way to predictable possessions and a demonically possessed Anthony Hopkins, who has chosen to retire from acting while remaining on-screen.

The Rite was released on March 10, 2011 in Australia by Roadshow Films.

March 11, 2011
Review: The Loved Ones

It has already been a bumper year for Australian film, with the likes of Animal Kingdom and The Waiting City getting rave reviews across the board. Yet let’s not forget the backbone of Australia’s film history: the exploitation genre. As Not Quite Hollywood informed us a few years ago, while Picnic at Hanging Rock was making nice on the international scene, the likes of Patrick and The Man from Hong Kong were quietly putting bums on seats in drive-ins across the country. In that proud tradition, we may now add The Loved Ones.

In rural Victoria, Brent (Xavier Samuel, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is slowly getting over the death of his father, killed while Brent was driving. Asked to the school dance by the ‘quiet one’ in the school, Lola (Rebecca McLeavy), he turns her down as he already has a loving girlfriend Holly (Victoria Thaine). However, Lola has other plans for the dance. She has been preparing for this for quite some time, and the little matter of Brent’s lack of enthusiasm isn’t going to dampen hers.

Bloody and sticky, what is most surprising about The Loved Ones is just how funny it also is. Billed as ‘Pretty in Pink meets Wolf Creek‘, but there should also be a nod to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films in there. A scene in which Brent, Lola, her dad and ‘Bright Eyes’ sit around the dinner table has the grotesque humour of Tobe’s Hooper’s second entry in that series, or more recently the films of Rob Zombie. Maybe ‘Prom Night meets Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ doesn’t quite fit on the poster as well, but nor would that description adequately capture the quirkiness of what may be an instant cult classic.

The Loved Ones is Australian horror at its most fun, filled with the kind of over the top splatter that horror fans will flock to. Sean Byrne (who’s previous screen credits frighteningly include the self-help video The Secret) injects his debut theatrical feature with a cast of colourful characters. The real find here is McLeavy (48 Shades), who is perfectly cast as the unhinged Lola, with a daddy wrapped around her pink varnished little finger. Imagine if Napoleon Dynamite‘s Deb had snapped and gone off the deep end. While the story believability levels may stray at times, and the gore levels certainly won’t be to all tastes, it stays on just the right side of the torture porn genre with a few genuine twists to boot. You’ll never guess what is in the basement.

Following in the tradition of the Sperig Brothers’ Undead (who also brought us Daybreakers this year), The Loved Ones is the kind of genre piece that we should be seeing more often on local screens. Australians, rise up and demand buckets of blood and power drills on more marquees! You may never listen to Kasey Chambers in the same way again!

Overall rating: ★★★½

The Loved Ones is out in Australia on 30 September 2010 from Madman Entertainment.

July 26, 2010