Book Review: Jenny's Dance by Bruce Kaplan

Jenny’s Dance was originally published in Australia in 1989, but after the small publisher went belly up the book went out of print. Twenty years later author Bruce Kaplan made a few small tweaks and decided to re-release the book himself in 2009.

Of course if you ask me, the book needs A LOT more editing despite its fascinating story…

After a traumatizing incident, journalist Michael Baird’s therapist recommends he take a nice long vacation. Michael heads to the sleepy resort town of Koala Bay, but it turns out things aren’t quite so quiet there. A violent series of murders is being covered up by the local authorities, murders which just might involve some young children with high I.Q.’s. Though Michael has been warned not to get involved or cause himself any undue stress, his journalistic instincts tell him otherwise and he is soon in the thick of it. Can Michael find out who or what is killing the residents of Koala Bay before either the authorities or the killer(s) kill him first?

Jenny’s Dance has an intriguing sci-fi/horror storyline, but unfortunately tends to get bogged down by sloppy grammatical and punctuation errors and slim character development.

First off, let’s get the obvious out of the way – apparently author Bruce Kaplan has never heard of punctuation or it doesn’t exist in Australia, because he uses it as little as possible. And by “as little as possible” I mean it is usually just used at the end of sentences, if you’re lucky. There are no quotation marks when dialogue is used, there are no apostrophes – neither to mark possession nor to mark the omission of letters (like “shouldn’t” for “should not”), there are no commas to mark pauses in sentences – pretty much the only punctuation that is used is the period at the end of sentences. I understand the creative omission of punctuation in something like poetry, but in a novel it’s kinda vital, doncha think? I had a hard time getting into the book (or taking it seriously) because of the heinous misuse (no use?) of punctuation. And the author even had a second time to fix all this nonsense since this was his second time releasing the book!!

Secondly, the characters all feel and act like stereotypical cardboard cut-outs (with about that much personality). The hero of the novel has a tragic past, but overcomes it to solve the case and win the girl…yada yada yada. There are the typical crooked cops and authorities, the “creepy” kids (who aren’t all that fleshed out and not so creepy) and the underdeveloped female characters. The female characters are probably the flimsiest, and exist in the book to only play mothers or love interests. Psh…I could go on a rant about this alone, but this book has so many other problems that I’ll refrain. Just know that all of the characters are stereotypical and aren’t that well fleshed out, making the reader not care that much about them. Also, things happen to the characters that just seem too convenient. Michael falls in love with a local school teacher awfully fast (their relationship seemed a bit forced and contrived) and he always happens to stumble upon bodies, among other things. At times, even the dialogue and interactions between people in the book seems off and a little stilted.

However, I will say that the storyline was intriguing and was the only thing that kept me reading. Despite the poor use of punctuation and the cardboard characters the idea behind the book was unique and interesting. I liked how Kaplan kept me guessing as to who or what was doing the killing and I especially liked entertaining the fact that it could be kids sucking the brains out of victims. I also thought the final explanation was satisfying and definitely not something you read every day. Though in the end there is a sci-fi twist, I still enjoyed the horror of the story (even though I had to sit through the horror of the formatting).

If you can stomach sacrificing proper punctuation, grammar and decent characters for a cool story,  you may want to check out Jenny’s Dance. The title doesn’t really do the book any favors, nor is it really relevant to the plot, but despite its flaws the actual story isn’t half bad. Just be prepared to slog through a messy manuscript to get to the gem of the story!

Available on Amazon!

Slaughtered (2009)

Slaughtered has quite an interesting story behind it. It was written, produced and directed by Kate Glover in her native Australia when she was just 22 years old. While Glover was in college, she worked at an isolated pub in an area where real-life serial killer Ivan Milat hid the bodies of his British backpacker victims. She was inspired to make a film after hearing this story and seeing a creepy razor-edged saw hanging in the cellar. After Glover held some fundraisers with the local drinkers at her bar along with selling bottles of blood red beer, she had enough to hire a cast and crew (most under 25 years old) to make her film!

The gory slasher, simply put, is about the employees and patrons of a bar being terrorized by a masked killer one night.

While it isn’t the most original or complex of stories, Slaughtered still delivers some solid scares and is an impressive effort considering what little experience filmmaker Glover had when she first started. For the most part the direction is clear and you can always see the action going on, even in darker scenes. The pub scenes are appropriately dingy and create a believable atmosphere of a true backwoods dive bar. Even when the film kicks into high gear and the action comes fast and fierce the direction is still crisp.

Surprisingly, the acting on this low budget flick is pretty decent. All of the actors do a great job and I enjoyed watching all of them. No cringe-worthy performances here! Plus, it also didn’t help that it was a very attractive cast, filled with both eye candy for girls as well as guys!

The gore in the film was quite impressive, again taking into consideration that this was a low budget film. Kills were gory and gruesome and the blood flowed thick and fast! The killer went around with a brutal looking saw and hacked people up left and right! As for the killer’s design, he looked downright menacing wearing a black hooded robe and a gruesome death mask.

My only complaint about the film is that it started to feel a bit generic and repetitive when the “final girl” figured out there was a killer on the loose. The story just didn’t try hard enough to differentiate itself from all the other slashers out there and needed a little something extra to be memorable. Not even the nicely done twist at the end could liven things up.

Nevertheless, Slaughtered was an impressive first effort from filmmaker Kate Glover, who should be proud of herself and her cast and crew for creating this film. Despite its flaws, it was still an entertaining slasher to watch and makes me look forward to what Glover does next. Word is that her production company Red Sparrow is prepping The Bone Orchard, set to be directed by the legendary John Landis.
For more info, visit Red Sparrow Productions’ Official Site!

Long Weekend (1978)

Earlier this year I watched the disappointing Nature’s Grave, which I found out was actually a remake of the 1978 Australian film Long Weekend. As I dug a little deeper I discovered that many people held Long Weekend in high regard and it had been called one of the greatest nature-run-amuck films ever made. So after watching the unremarkable remake, which was supposedly shot-for-shot of the original, I felt it was only fair to go back to the source and watch Long Weekend.

Long Weekend isn’t your standard nature’s revenge flick – it is far more subtle, and is more of a psychological struggle between a bickering city couple and the unfamiliar outdoors they’ve chosen as a vacation spot. Some could argue that there is a supernatural element to the proceedings, but everything that happens also has a perfectly logical, natural explanation as well…it just seems supernatural because the city slickers aren’t familiar with nature and definitely don’t respect it.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me give a brief synopsis of Long Weekend:

Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets) are a married couple who are obviously having some issues. To hopefully patch up their marriage they head out to a deserted beach for a long weekend. Peter brings his dog, Cricket, and his trusty rifle to shoot at random stuff as he drinks beer, leaving a trail of litter in his wake. Marcia does nothing but complain that they are far away from her friends and how she would much rather spend a nice weekend at a luxury hotel, all the while burning a hole in the ozone layer as she constantly hoses down the campsite with bug spray. The couple continues to have a flippant disregard for the environment – Marcia flicks cigarette butts everywhere, Peter throws beer bottles into the brush and kills innocent animals (he runs over a kangaroo, kills a mama duck with an errant bullet and shoots a sea cow repeatedly). Soon, the laws of nature come into play and Peter and Marcia face the harsh justice of the jungle.

Long Weekend is a gorgeous film, with wide panning shots of the crystal-clear surf and white sand beach. The pristine environment makes the destruction Peter and Marcia cause that much more ugly and harsh. It’s a very sharp contrast between the food wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles of beer and the once pure coastline. Yet, in the finale when Peter stumbles upon another abandoned campsite we see how humans may come and go but Mother Nature seems to bounce back from any blight humans mar her with. Director Colin Eggleston definitely crafted a socially conscious and stunning film that was way ahead of its time.

As for the story, writer Everett De Roche really involves the audience in his cautionary tale. As mentioned earlier, it has a bit of a supernatural feel to it, but you could also look at it from a very rational point of view as well. It’s all in how you perceive the film, and I like how De Roche left it ambiguous for the audience. I also like how the characters were so unlikable, yet you were still interested to see what would happen to them and even a bit concerned for their safety (even though they brought their misfortune on themselves). All their trouble basically stemmed from poor decisions they made and their unfamiliarity with the outdoors. I mean, who really steals an eagle egg, smashes it and doesn’t expect the bird to come after them or approaches a possum and doesn’t expect to get bitten? Though the two leads make poor decisions, there is a part of you wishing they get out alive and perhaps learn a lesson not to mess with nature. Kudos to De Roche for making us care about such unlikable characters.

Both Briony Behets and John Hargreaves must also be commended for their strong performances in Long Weekend. They are basically the only two characters in the film, plus they are rotten individuals (she is always nagging while he is just an asshole, plus they have their own nasty secrets that come out as the film progresses), and yet we cannot take our eyes away from them. I think the biggest problem with the remake, Nature’s Grave, was the acting. In the remake the two leads didn’t have the fiery chemistry that Behets and Hargreaves possess, nor did they play it as realistically. Hargreaves and Behets really sell the characters and really involve us in the story, making us want to see and learn more about their vile characters.

There is also a lot to discover within the story itself, as the secrets of the secluded beach reveal themselves. The film is slow-paced, but that doesn’t make it bad by any means! Instead, it spends time building the tension and is punctuated by several shocking scenes (Peter’s crossbow accidentally going off and almost hitting Marcia, an aerial attack by an eagle, a menacing shape in the water while Peter is out swimming, Peter’s exploration of an overgrown campsite, and so on). The atmosphere of slowly-building dread is nicely accompanied by a beautiful score that helps accentuate the eeriness and tension of the film.

If you happen to come across Nature’s Grave, I recommend skipping it and renting the far superior original, Long Weekend. Though this is not your typical “animals-run-amuck” revenge film, it is still a breathtaking and tension-filled film that deserves to be seen by those that like their slowly-creeping horror!

Order it on Amazon!

Bad Habits (2009)

Bad Habits is a stylishly filmed Australian flick that harbors a much more complex, surreal storyline than its nunsploitation roots would lead you to believe. It is a film that is elevated far above the usually trashy, exploitative films that it pays homage to.

The synopsis of the film, from the official site, is as follows:

Sister Marie Fenche (Sandra Casa) is a woman on the verge of collapse. Barely able to distinguish reality from fantasy, Marie’s life is thrown into turmoil when she awakens one morning, alone in a room with a corpse in the bathtub. Is she being set up or did she kill the man herself? The truth is not even Marie knows for sure.

Bad Habits is a journey straight into the subconscious of its protagonist; a place where reality and fantasy intermingle so completely as to be entirely indistinguishable. Marie’s only grounding in this confused world is Jamie (London Gabrielle), an innocent young nun who is both equally enamored and repulsed by her.

Jamie can only help so much, however, and Marie’s world comes crashing down when she encounters a mysterious stranger who triggers dark and dangerous memories.

Unable to sleep and addled by pills Marie releases her final grip on reality as her dementia leads her deeper and deeper into a world of violence, sex and drugs.

Bad Habits’ story, written by Dominic Deacon (who also directed), is a mysterious, surreal and nightmarish trip through the fractured mind of the lead character, Sister Marie Fenche. The film isn’t just a crude, perverse exploitation flick, but goes deeper to examine the confused mind of Marie. Sure, there are lesbian nuns, nudity, drug use, sex scenes and bloody murders, but the flick is far less exploitative than it touts itself to be.

The character of Sister Marie Fenche is so interesting because she has no moral compass. As a nun, she is supposed to be holy, but she is anything but! She drinks, fights and fucks her way through each night without a single care for the consequences. She is addicted to heroine, pills and Lord knows what else. She can’t tell the difference between right and wrong or reality and fantasy. She kills indiscriminately, but does it all while looking damn good!

Speaking of looking good, Bad Habits has a very stylish noir/pulp thriller look to it despite its low budget. The film has an amazingly polished and professional look to it as well. The film’s grim tone is set by the gritty atmosphere of the film. Each scene is bathed in shadows and shades of gray and blue. The only breaks in the bleak atmosphere are the jarring splashes of red as blood flows from the multiple murders that occur in the film. It’s not that the film’s focus is on gore, but we do see our fair share of slit wrists and throats, stabbings, shootings and so on.

For a low budget film, I was mostly impressed with Bad Habits. Even the acting by everyone involved was top-notch, something usually unheard of in no-budget film. Despite this high praise, the film did have its problems. The biggest problem was the pacing. The film is broken up into three segments, the first called “Lizard in a Woman’s Skin” (a nod to the Fulci film), the second “So Sweet…So Perverse”, and the last and final part “Crazy Hot”. I felt that breaking the film up into segments was pretty unnecessary, especially since most of the film is surreal anyway and the audience never knows if what they are seeing is real or just a figment of Marie’s fractured mind. They also break the film up and slow down its already languid pace.

Overall, Bad Habits is a much more sophisticated film than it gives itself credit for. Despite some pacing problems, the film is beautifully filmed, expertly acted and contains a mysterious, interesting story. The surreal quality of the story reminded me a lot of David Lynch’s experimental films, quite an accomplishment for an independent film!

Visit Bad Habits’ Official Site!

Acolytes (2009)

Hailing from Australia, Acolytes is a slow-paced yet thrilling film that has quite a few surprises. Though the synopsis might make it seem like a straightforward story of kids blackmailing a serial killer to get revenge on a bully, the film is much more than that. It takes its time building up the tension for an explosive and bloody finale, all the while commenting on how evil can live behind the white picket fence just next door.

Our story opens with three teens – Mark (Sebastian Gregory), Chasely (Hannah Morgan Lawrence), and James (Joshua Payne) hanging out after school. Mark and James have been friends since they were little kids, but there is friction between them now that James is going out with Chasely, whom Mark is obviously infatuated with. When James and Chasely start to get into some heavy petting, Mark wanders off into the woods, where he comes across a man burying something. After getting a glimpse of the man’s distinctive SUV (it has a butterfly design on the back of the spare tire cover), Mark runs back to tell James and Chasely. The three return to the woods with shovels to see what the man was burying and discover a body in the shallow hole. When the cops don’t believe them, they track down the killer (Joel Edgerton) and try to blackmail him into helping them kill a bully (Michael Dorman) who caused them irreparable harm when they were kids. What they don’t count on is the killer’s truly sadistic nature as he quickly turns the tables on them.

Acolytes is quite a chilling, thrilling film from Down Under. The most chilling aspect of it was its suggestion that evil can live right next door with the seemingly pleasant married couple who have just had a baby. If you really think about it, our society is so distant from one another that it is not hard to believe you would ignore screams if they were coming from next door. Or is you saw your neighbor carrying what looked like a body bag into his house. Chances are, you would just ignore what you saw, mentally brushing it off as none of your business. So, living next door or in the same town as a serial killer really isn’t that hard to imagine. Neither is it hard to believe that if pushed far enough, you could also become a killer…

Director Jon Hewitt filmed Acolytes on a relatively low budget, but from looking at the picture you’d never be able to tell. There are some truly gorgeous shots in the film, like a panning shot of a blue-tinged dawn in the beginning of the film. The film on a whole looks great, from bright, wide-open shots at the beginning of the story to more dark and claustrophobic shots as the film nears its end. Though it does take a while to get doing, I thought the slow burn approach was appropriate as we get to know the characters and their pasts. Some viewers might find it a bit languid, but I felt the pacing was near perfect.

The story, written by Shayne Armstrong, Shane Krause and Jon Hewitt, is intriguing and surprising. Even if the synopsis seems straightforward, it really isn’t and the story takes you dark places you didn’t think the film would go. While the first half of the film focuses on the teens, the latter half focuses more on the killer as he turns the tables on them. The characters are all realistically portrayed and even the bad decisions the teens make seem entirely plausible. Plus, there is a wicked twist towards the end that explains the whole “acolyte” (meaning a “devoted follower or attendant”) title.

Most of the violence is reserved until the last half of the film, but there is a jarring opening sequence that shows a young, half-naked girl being terrorized in the woods. As for the rest of the action, we get lots of exciting car chases (and crashes), cross-bow hunting, a head getting repeatedly bashed in by a large rock, stabbings, kidnappings and so on. While the first half of the film has a tense, ominous feel to it, the last half revels in the release of pent-up aggression.

I’m not sure what I expected out of Acolytes (perhaps a standard slash ‘n’ hack movie) but what I saw far exceeded my expectations. It’s moody, atmospheric beginning slowly gives way to bloody violence that eventually leads to a grim conclusion.

Buy it on Amazon!

Nature's Grave (2009)

Australia has always captivated me. “The land down under” just seems so wild, untamed and dangerous, featuring some of the world’s most venomous/poisonous animals, insects, reptiles and plants known to man. I’ve always wanted to visit there, but the thought of adding to the destruction of its unique ecosystem just turns my stomach. I don’t want to be just another one of those disrespectful tourists that go tramping through nature, spoiling the region’s natural beauty and tranquility! Not to mention that I might come face to face with some of its more deadly inhabitants!

So, when I received the film Nature’s Grave (releasing August 4th, 2009 from Screen Media Films), which just so happens to be set in breathtaking Australia and shows how Mother Nature can strike back against careless humans, I was eager to check it out! The film opens right away on some jaw-droppingly beautiful shots of Australia’s north coast before cutting to bickering couple Peter (James Caviezel) and Carla (Claudia Karvan), who are taking a long weekend and leaving on a camping trip to try to patch up their disintegrating marriage. Of course, some stormy weather keeps them on the road longer than they expected, so they don’t arrive to the isolated, hidden beach they are planning to camp on until very late at night. Right away Carla gets a strange feeling about the place, but stubborn Peter seems more interested in getting drunk, going surfing and spending time with his dog, Cricket, than working through any of their problems (one of which is that he is a selfish prick).

The couple is supposed to meet some friends there, but they never show. As Peter kills and terrorizes the local wildlife, throws beer bottles into the ocean, hacks away at trees and Carla sprays bug spray over everything and tries to spend most of the time as far away from nature as possible, the surrounding wilderness takes on an ominous feeling. It seems that Mother Nature isn’t taking too kindly to their intrusion. They hear strange crying noises at night, Peter is attacked by an eagle, animals break into their food and something very large lurks in the water just off shore. Carla insists they leave, but Peter can’t be bothered by her warnings and just wants to stick it out.

When they realize just how much danger they are in, it’s already too late and it’s time for Mother Nature to get even…

I wasn’t aware of this before watching Nature’s Grave, but it is actually a remake of a 1978 Australian film titled Long Weekend. From what I hear it has a bit of a cult following and is definitely worth a look. As for Nature’s Grave…eh, not so much, I’m afraid. It is supposedly a shot-for-shot remake of Long Weekend, but I’m guessing it is missing A LOT of the previous film’s subtleties and nuances.

Nature’s Grave is directed by Jamie Blank, who directed the awful Storm Warning and the mediocre Valentine and Urban Legend. Often times the film feels flat, and feels like it’s missing any kind of emotional connection with the audience. There are some beautiful shots of the Australian wilderness and wildlife, but at times it just didn’t feel like there was enough. I also thought the film’s creepy moments lacked punch and could have used with a few more scares.

The story, written by Everett De Roche (he also wrote the original Long Weekend), moves at a slow-but-sure pace, and I actually enjoyed the slowly-building dread. However, the characters are highly unlikable, with an over-the-top performance by Caviezel that feels like he’s never taking his character seriously to Karvan’s strangely reserved character that doesn’t even fight back when her husband tells her to “go fuck yourself”. Neither character is interesting and you don’t want to root for either, which kills any kind of tension that De Roche tried to build in his story. Without anyone to root for to survive, I found myself waiting for Mother Nature to extract her revenge on these two characters.

Though there are a few creepy scenes – one where something is lurking in the ocean’s crystal blue waters, another where a dead animal is seemingly moving of its own accord and, towards the end, another where Peter finds some other “campers”, most of the “revenge” that happens occurs because of the two characters’ doing. In the end, it’s really their own stupidity that catches up with them as opposed to Mother Nature. This really is a pity, because I was really hoping to see the characters ripped apart by animals or plants after how disrespectfully they treated nature.

Nature’s Grave isn’t that memorable of an affair. Though it has a few spooky scenes, the performances of the two actors and the way their characters are written are just grating and make the film hard to sit through. And when their final curtain finally comes, it just doesn’t feel vicious enough for what you’ve had to put up with the last hour and a half. My advice? Seek the original Long Weekend out…it has to be infinitely better than its remake, Nature’s Grave.

Buy it on Amazon!

I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer (2009)

I’ve been looking forward to I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer ever since I heard about this satirical Australian slasher a few years ago! The concept of a killer cricket player combined with the promise of plenty of slapstick screwball comedy really had me eager to check it out! Well, now it is finally hitting DVD stateside on June 30^th, 2009 and I finally got to see it. I gotta say, though, this film was a bit of a let down for me.

While IKHMRYSLS is clearly meant to be a horror comedy along the lines of Shaun of the Dead and Black Sheep, it fails to deliver. It is seriously lacking in the comedy department and its threadbare story is dragged out over its feature-film length while its unlikable characters don’t do much except look like the thickest bunch of blokes I’ve ever seen in a film.

Twenty years ago, a young cricketer was bullied so much by his teammates that he was hospitalized. Now, he’s all grown up and out for bloody revenge with an arsenal of razor-sharp cricket gloves, sharpened stumps, nailed balls and a sturdy cricket bat.

After gruesomely offing his first few victims, the police become involved and move the remaining teammates to an isolated “safe” house in the middle of nowhere…where one by one victims are brutally (and hilariously killed).

Despite the film’s awful “comedy” falling flat and the thin storyline stretched beyond its breaking point, I have to say that the deaths are pretty darn entertaining. Though they are pretty much the only entertaining thing in this film, they are reason enough for a rental. Sharpened cricket stumps are shoved down throats and through bodies, a ball stuck with nails is thrown at someone’s head, a Freddy Krueger-esque razor-fingered cricket glove is used to disembowel victims, a cricket bat is used for several pummelings and (my favorite) a nail-spiked sports cup is forcibly shoved into some guy’s privates. While the deaths are entertaining, they barely make the rest of the film worth watching.

The story, written by Doug Turner (who co-directed with Stacey Edmonds), just didn’t have enough humor and barely squeezed a few weak laughs out of me. When the best jokes are about gay hairdressers you know you have a problem. The dialogue was inane and downright annoying at times. The film also suffered from poor pacing or maybe it was just lack of story to fill the time between kills. Though it starts right off the bat with a kill, from there the film just meanders and the story never fully develops. There was so little story and character development that I found myself not engaged by the story, but just waiting for the next kill.

The characters are just kind thrown into the story without any character development and while I understand that many of them are just fodder for the killer, it would have been nice to have someone to root for. As it was, I didn’t really have anyone to care about except for the killer since he was the only one offering me any kind of fun in the film. I also thought that the police characters weren’t all that necessary (except for the twist at the end) and the film could have easily been made without them hampering the story. The inclusion of the police just felt like padding. I will say that I enjoyed the mainly male cast. Slashers usually feature a mostly female cast, so it was nice to see the victims being males for a change.

Speaking of padding, the scenes between the kills felt exactly like that – just fluff in between the only interesting bits. I didn’t see anything to prove that this film is “satirical” in any way…unless you count the out-of-nowhere gratuitous shower scene featuring Miss Nude Australia that spoofs the random shower scenes that appear in many slashers. The kills were pretty over the top, but they didn’t exactly spoof slasher flicks. I just felt that with few exceptions that IKHMRYSLS missed the boat on the comedic aspect of horror films.

I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer is a missed opportunity at a good horror comedy. It seemed to have so much potential, but this indie flick left me infinitely more disappointed than satisfied. The only thing that this film scores are fouls.

Available from Amazon!

Rogue (2008)

Despite my utter hatred for Greg Mclean’s first feature film, Wolf Creek, I was highly anticipating his next film, Rogue. I may have had disdain for the terrible Wolf Creek, but I can’t deny that Mclean certainly has an eye for stunning shots. When Rogue was denied a theatrical release by its studio, Dimension (thereby leaving legions of horror fans scratching their heads), I assumed it just wasn’t worthy enough for theaters. Then, Lionsgate dumped Midnight Meat Train into a few second rate theaters (with rumors that this will also happen with Repo! The Genetic Opera). So apparently it’s now become a fad for major studios to discard their actually good horror films and not give them a theatrical run! Way to go Dimension for starting the trend! Anyways, after watching Rogue I can honestly say that this film did indeed deserve a theatrical run and it’s a pity that fans weren’t able to experience it on the big screen.

In the stunningly rugged Northern Territory of Australia, a group of tourists board a river boat to see the spectacular sights and hopefully catch a glimpse of some killer crocodiles that the Territory is known for. The group consists of a wide range of people, including a family consisting of father, daughter and dying-of-cancer mother, a man who wants to scatter a loved one’s ashes, a photographer, a middle-aged couple and even an American travel writer (Michael Vartan). Leading the river tour is experienced and spunky guide Kate (Radha Mitchell). After lazily drifting down the river and spotting more than a few crocs in action, the tour is nearly over…but after seeing some distress flares Kate decides to follow them. When they finally arrive to where the flare signal came from, there is no one around except for a half-sunken, overturned boat. Uh-oh…

Suddenly, the tour boat is rammed hard from something in the water and pretty soon everyone finds themselves stuck on a small island in the middle of the river. The group quickly figures out that they’ve trespassed on a giant crocodile’s territory and it’ll stop at nothing until all of its prey is dead. With the tide quickly coming in and night approaching fast, the group must figure out how to survive and out-wit the killer crocodile to make it off the rapidly-disappearing island.

Finally horror fans get a chance to catch this killer croc movie, although on DVD instead of in theaters. All I can say is that it is extremely disappointing that this fantastically thrilling film was not given a theatrical release. It is so tense and suspenseful on the small screen that I imagine on the big screen it must be downright terrifying!

The high caliber of Rogue is just remarkable, from the spectacular cinematography to the fantastic acting to the imposing and frightening crocodile. The first 30 minutes of the film play like a loving homage to the Northern Territory and should be used for their tourism board! The vast vistas of the Outback will leave you speechless and yearning to visit Down Under. There are also many great wildlife shots of crocodiles, birds, insects and other animals. The emerald river the river boat drifts down sparkles in the sunlight and contrasts against the high, red cliffs that border it.

And, then, after you’ve been dazzled by all that beauty…POW! Nature strikes! Things take a very hair-raising turn with the brazen killer crocodile stalking the marooned tourists. Not only that, but their safe haven (not much more than a mound of dirt) is quickly disappearing under the rising tide. The great acting by all involved really makes us care for each and every character (very well-developed by writer/director Greg Mclean). Each and every action they take is believable and expected in such a high-stress, life-or-death situation.

As for the crocodile, it looks unbelievably realistic! Director Mclean wisely only gives us quick glimpses of the croc in the beginning, but by the end we’ve seen its entire massive body (as well as more than a few frightening close-ups of its toothy maw) and it still looks amazing! I loved how when we first see the croc it is just a shadow underneath the water and we’re not sure what we’ve just seen until it suddenly strikes. There are also several moments that’ll make you jump out of your skin they are so unexpected, like the first tourist it decides to snack on!

Though this film ratchets up the tension and suspense in a thrilling manner, it doesn’t really have that much gore. We seen a few people get chomped on, but it mostly happens so quickly with the croc and its prey disappearing under water, so we don’t get a whole gory show. We get to see some nasty bite marks, but the film is a little lacking in the gore department. Despite this, it still manages to work extremely well even without copious amounts of blood.

The direction by Greg Mclean is utter perfection. Rogue opens showcasing Australia’s wide open spaces, but once the croc attacks ensue, the scope becomes entirely claustrophobic. This only adds to the fear factor of the film and Mclean pulls it off effortlessly.

One thing I felt could have been done better was the ending. Despite the realism that the first part of the film had, the ending felt kind of fake and hokey. A certain character’s actions just didn’t ring true with me and the finale was a bit unbelievable. Still, if you can overlook that Rogue is a damn fine film and along with killer croc movie Black Water, it is one of the best killer croc features ever made.

Available from Amazon!

Black Water (2008)

I’ve never really been a big fan of the “when animals attack” sub-genre. The characters in these films are usually stupid (and deserve to die) and they usually end up getting killed by an animal much smarter than them. I always hated how this far superior animal was simply killed in the end, even though the characters were so much less intelligent than it. It’s hard to enjoy or even be scared by a horror film if you hate the characters and can’t relate to their actions and are rooting for the “villain.” Yet, every once in a while a horror film in this sub-genre comes around that I particularly like…

How does the Australian film Black Water rate? You’ll have to keep reading to find out…

On holiday, sisters Grace (Diana Glenn) and Lee (Maeve Dermody) and Grace’s boyfriend Adam (Andy Rodoreda) take a road trip into the Australian countryside. They visit a crocodile farm before deciding to take a fishing tour on the flood-swollen river. Their guide (Ben Oxenbould) takes them out in a small metal motorboat, taking them all the way to an isolated mangrove lagoon. Before you can say “Gone Fishin’,” a big croc capsizes their little boat. Adam and Grace scramble for a nearby tree, but Lee gets stuck on the top of the overturned boat. The massive crocodile pokes its behemoth head out of the water to say hello, then dives back under to try and knock Lee off. Soon, the three friends realize that the croc has dragged off their guide and that they are miles away from anything and anyone. Can the three friends escape the croc’s clutches and make it out in one piece as opposed to in pieces?

For a killer croc movie, Black Water is a surprisingly tense and taut picture! It’s got high production values, great direction, likable characters and a scary crocodile! It’s based on a true story (read about it http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2241705,00.html) and actually stays pretty close to it. It’s also interesting to note that the filmmakers used real crocodiles for the majority of the film instead of CGI or other special FX. This lent a level of realism that was downright frightening! When I was watching the film, I marveled at the realistic-looking crocodiles, but it was only after the film did I find out that they were actually REAL!!

Speaking of the crocodile in the film, it takes on a persona all its own in the film. It is extremely menacing and seems to be psychologically playing with its prey and relishing their fear. In one scene it emerges from the water to show the survivors a chewed up corpse and the croc does it tauntingly, rubbing it in. In another scene, the croc pops out of the water to block the way of the survivors, kinda like he’s saying, “I don’t think so!” As for the rest of the characters, we really don’t get to know them all that much, besides the fact that one is pregnant. Despite the shallow characterizations, we still end up caring deeply for the trio. They are likable and their situation unimaginable, so it is quite easy to feel sympathy for them (yes, even when they do make stupid mistakes).

I thought all the actors did a good job with acting frightened, especially because for the first half of the film you don’t see the crocodile that often. Their confusion, panic and desperation feel very real, though I will say that some of the initial whining and crying gets old fast. Still, the actors did convey fear, anger, determination and more while still maintaining their believability.

Of course, some of the characters’ actions were a bit unbelievable. Why didn’t the group ever try and distract the crocodile by using one person as bait to lead it away from the boat while someone else went for it when the croc was preoccupied? And why did they always use the thinnest, most spindly branches to try and grab the boat’s rope? These and many other questions plagued the film, but the character’s sometimes silly actions didn’t ruin the entire film.

Overall, the film was nail-bitingly intense. Three people stuck up in a tree sure doesn’t sound like a very engaging movie, but the writing-directing team of David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki managed to create an ominous atmosphere full of tension. The two directors utilized several spectacular shots that put the viewer directly into the action. One scene in particular involved showing the point of view from a victim during the crocodile’s “death roll” – a roll that involves them biting their prey and dragging them underwater while the croc spins around several times, trying to drown its prey. I really thought this was an inventive and exciting shot that captured the ferocity of the predator. It felt like National Geographic on steroids! There are also lots of scenes of the murky swamp water that’ll have your toes curling imaging what lies in those depths.

I will warn you, though, Black Water is seriously lacking in the blood and guts department. All we get is a severed arm, a chomped-on body, a not-very-bloody croc bite, various scratches, etc., etc. There are no big bubbling pools of blood a la Jaws here, kiddies. In the context of the movie, though, the lack of gore works just fine. The tension and suspense are what really keep the film moving along.

Black Water is a pleasant surprise amidst the standard stupid “when animals attack” films. It delivers tension and suspense without having to resort to gore for entertainment and will put you on the edge of your seat!

Available from Amazon!

Gory Gear: Beserk Clothing

Sassy, sexy and GORE-geous are just a few words to describe the Beserk Clothing line out of Australia! Beserk’s stunning designs are eye-catchingly bright adorned with skulls, red crosses, sprites, ravens, angels, trees, hearts and several eerie horror scenes!

Owner and Designer Fleur Brazier says she is “Heavily inspired by the streets of Japan, blood, cherry blossoms, maneki neko, nightmares, fetish and kisses.” Adding to that, Beserk is also has a cyberpunk and goth feel that will tickle many a horror-lovin’ girl’s fancy! Yet, amidst all the fantastically dark women’s fashions, there are a few options for the men as well, though this line is mostly geared as devilish delight for the ladies.

We were sent two tees, one inspired by the classic film Nosferatu and the other reminiscent of the infamous pole death in Cannibal Holocaust. The first thing that was noticeable was the high quality fabric the designs were printed on. The tees were thick and plush, made with 100% cotton and were probably the highest quality tees I’ve seen in quite some time. The designs themselves were gorgeous! They were bright and bold in red and white printed on black tees. The designs were simple, but really popped! The Beserk label slashed through in a deep blood red, but never once did it overpower the main designs.

The rest of the designs that adorn Beserk’s clothing are all equally attention-grabbing. The bold red, white and black color scheme is present throughout all the creations, from skirts, halters, shorts, dresses and tees. So varied are the designs and products that Beserk Clothing could be your one-stop-shop for all your goth-geisha fashions!

Besides t-shirts, Beserk Clothing carries Evil Princess Skirts, Combat Mini Shorts, Strangle Halter Tops, Assassin Pleated Mini Skirts, Beserk Army Dresses, Geisha Gangster Tops and unique accessory items. Not only are all the designs entirely unique and eye-catching, but all their clothes are also made sweatshop-free in their home country of Australia!

Whether you’re out for a night on the town or just hanging out with friends, you’ll turn heads and break hearts with Beserk’s killer clothing!

Check them out at www.beserkclothing.com!

Storm Warning (2007)

Following in the snooze-inducing footsteps of Aussie film Wolf Creek, Storm Warning revels in its repugnant, uncomfortable scenes of abuse while seemingly forgetting a full-length film needs a story to support its 1 ½ hour run-time.

An Australian couple decides to go boating one day and rents a small fishing boat. After a bit of fishing they decide to sail through some nearby marshes, but soon get lost. With an approaching storm and night quickly falling, they abandon the boat to find help and a lift back to the mainland. They find an old, empty farmhouse, but the barn is full of marijuana plants. Before they can get away from the drug dealers, the owners, a vile family of hillbillies that include a father and his two sons, arrive home. They are none too pleased to find interlopers inside their dwelling and are soon making the couple’s life a living hell. Can the couple escape the brutal captors?

First off, the wimpy and annoying lead male did nothing to arouse pity or sympathy. His stupid choices (not turning the boat around when a storm approached, getting lost, deciding to approach the hillbilly house, etc.) are what get them into trouble. When they became prisoners of the hillbillies, he really didn’t try and fight back, even when they humiliated and fondled his girlfriend. The good this is that she actually took charge and kicked enough ass for the both of them. As for the villains, they were never scary. We saw and heard far too much of them to make them intimidating or scary. They just ended up being your standard redneck weirdos with bad hygiene and an affinity for violence.

As for the story, you’ve seen in all before (in much better films) and sadly, there’s nothing new added to Storm Warning to make it stand out. It features the same characters in the same scenario you’ve seen countless times over. There are no twists and no surprises to alleviate the painful boredom experienced while watching this movie.

The scenes of humiliation the couple is forced to endure are really nothing new to the genre and there are much more brutal films that are done better than this one. So don’t let my statement of “repugnant, uncomfortable scenes of abuse” titillate you – there’s not anything groundbreaking or truly shocking shown here if you are a genre fan.

There is only one scene in the whole film that sticks out. There is a part where the couple is locked in a tool shed and the female gets all crafty and MacGyver-ish, setting up a wicked trap for the hillbillies involving fish hooks. Besides the fact that the scene requires you to suspend your belief awfully high, the end result of the trap is pretty cool to see. Despite that one flash-in-the-pan, though, the rest of the movie drags.

Director Jamie Blank’s other directorial efforts include genre films Urban Legend and Valentine, which were fun, if a little mediocre, films. With Storm Warning, though, it feels like he has stepped into the mean-spirited and over-played “torture porn” subgenre. His earlier films evoke the fun of the slasher film heyday of the 80’s, but Storm Warning fails to capture the grittiness of the 70’s exploitation films it was trying to emulate.

The tedious script, written by Everett de Roche, doesn’t help with its unlikable characters making stupid decisions and stereotypical villains. Within the first five minutes you pray that the two annoying leads are headed towards a painful death and the dull villains are just begging for an ass-whuppin’!

Storm Warning delivers just ONE worthy scene in its entire 80 minute running time. The rest is the same old backwoods hogwash we’ve seen a million times before, only in much better films. Better films that feature characters we actually care about, a multi-layered story that features surprises and twists, harrowing scenes and frightening villains. Storm Warning has none of those key components and fails miserably because of that.

The only frightening thing about the film is that I actually sat through it (I will admit pushing the fast forward button on more than one occasion, though). The good news is that now you don’t have to!!

Available from Amazon!

Interview with Director Melanie Ansley

Melanie Ansley is the director and co-writer of the spook-fest Watch Me (review), a film that explores the ready availability of snuff films and pornography online to just about anyone and the redheaded ghost that takes revenge on those that take pleasure watching her suffer in a particularly nasty snuff film.

Ansley is an up-and-coming independent filmmaker from Australia and Watch Me is her first horror feature. She has managed to craft a socially-conscious, frightening and visually striking horror film - a feat most directors don't achieve until they've had years of experience in the genre.

Fatally Yours: Melanie, what inspired you to become involved in film? More specifically, what drew you to co-write (with Sam Voutas) and direct Watch Me?

Melanie Ansley: I’d produced two documentaries before Watch Me, and I think I felt like I really needed to get back to basics and do something more fun. After all, at the end of a long day I really just want to put on a film and be entertained. I love horrors, sci-fi and kung fu flicks, and I thought to myself, why on earth am I making documentaries instead of the kind of films I myself love to watch? If I love to watch them, how much fun would I have making one?

Horror gives you a lot of room for imagination, it’s fun, and it’s contained, meaning you can do it on a limited budget, so it seemed a good place to start for me as a first time director. We wrote the script in a few weeks, it really just poured out. We had a lot of fun co-writing together, we would always try to outdo each other’s twisted imaginations.

Fatally Yours: The Asian horror influence is apparent in Watch Me. Which Asian films and directors inspired you the most? What other films did you find inspiring you in making Watch Me?

Melanie Ansley: Of course the director most people comment on first is Shimizu, and I am definitely a big fan. I think Asian horror has really shown the west that Hollywood is not king; the theory that there are only so many ways to tell a horror film has really been shattered, I think, by the Asian horror wave. I found it very revolutionary, for me anyway, to see how simple shots, well thought out, can really create more tension than buckets of gore and blood and rapid editing. But I think I also drew a lot of inspiration from the Western masters as well, such as Dario Argento. For instance I knew I wanted to make a film with a lot of color, which I attribute to having been impressed by the texture and feel of films like Suspiria.

Fatally Yours: The red-haired woman in your film is a striking image and goes against the stereotype of long, black-haired women in most Asian horror films. How did you and Sam Voutas (fellow writer and producer and actor in the film) come up with her character?

Melanie Ansley: I think this comes back again to the desire to really put color in the film, unlike most Asian horrors which focus on grays and blacks—we knew Redhead should be visually shocking, she should give people a jolt. And redheads tend to be pale, and can easily be quite freaky looking, given the right make up, lighting, etc. So I guess this was kind of a knee jerk reaction to the long haired Asian bogeywoman, I wanted to offer something different.

Fatally Yours: The acting in Watch Me is very well done, especially for a low budget film. Can you tell me a little about the auditioning process and how you decided to go with Frances Marrington and Sam Voutas as your leads?

Melanie Ansley: Sam we knew we were writing the part for. Sam has always loved acting—he usually writes, directs and acts in his own films, such as the sci-fi Crash Test which came out in 2006. He’s always been a very talented actor, in my view, and having written the script I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem for him to know exactly what kind of beast his character, Taku, was.

We found Frances through a friend. At that point she had never done film, but she was very keen to give this a go and she gave 110%, and she had a good “look”. I had less of an auditioning process so much as a “sit down over coffee” process. I find auditioning very awkward and uncomfortable, for all involved. Instead I felt I needed to find people who I could work with, people who would feel comfortable with me and would have the patience to see it out with a first time director. So we talked to several people, including a guy who said he genuinely does watch snuff movies on the net—that was a creepy experience! He kept saying we should check out such and such websites, where the killings were really great, just make sure the police don’t catch on, because there’s some unthinkable stuff going on…you see, I don’t think you get that kind of information out of a normal audition process!

Fatally Yours: What was the most difficult thing you encountered making this film?

Melanie Ansley: Decision making. I realized that you had to make decisions on the spot, all the time, right or wrong, and that you have to at least keep up an image of being decisive. I had a very rough patch where because I showed hesitation and indecision in the first few days of shooting, certain crew members felt like that was a signal to bulldoze me and tell me what I should shoot, how I should shoot it, and what my film should look like, and even suggested that because I was a girl I didn’t know what I was doing. I realized that no matter how much of a diplomat I wanted to be, when in the director’s shoes one has to bite the bullet and not be afraid to make heads roll. Filmmaking sometimes does not work like a democracy, at times it has to turn into a dictatorship, especially if you think there’s going to be a riot in the ranks. It’s an ugly truth, it seems.

Fatally Yours: In Watch Me, there is much talk about censorship regarding the banned and rare films that Taku (Sam Voutas) owns. Do filmmakers still encounter heavy censorship in Australia?

Melanie Ansley: I think we all live in pretty conservative times, though I’ve never been personally hounded by the censors in any country. Yet.

Fatally Yours: In many horror films today, technology (or the misuse of it) seems to be the new evil. Why do you think this is and why did you choose to focus on the horrors of technology in your film?

Melanie Ansley: I think it’s a fascination with the realization that technology has come to rule our lives. Are we using technology or is it using us? I look at things like YouTube and various websites, and basically there is nothing that you can not watch on the web nowadays, no matter what your kink, fetish, desire, hobby etc. Also I find the idea of my privacy being invaded through internet bugs, back doors, Trojan horses, etc. very disturbing. We’ve come to treat our computers as our diaries and personal extensions, it contains so much information relating to our work, our communications, everything.

Fatally Yours: Does your film have a particular message that you would like the audience to walk away with?

Melanie Ansley: Don’t watch snuff films on the internet, only rent or buy from trusted sources…but I think you’re the only reviewer to have picked up on the message about the enjoyment of violence, and I think that was definitely what I wanted to explore in this film. How often do we delight in someone else’s pain, be it physical, mental, emotional, etc? And does that make us sick/evil? But mostly I was looking to make something entertaining, something horror fans will watch and enjoy.

Fatally Yours: Melanie, congratulations on making an entertaining horror film with Watch Me. What are your plans in the future?

Melanie Ansley: I’d love to make another horror, now that I feel like I’ve cut my teeth on this one. Something with more blood, more gore, since I decided to go down the toned down route with Watch Me. I also have a sci-fi script which has been in gestation for the last 4 years and is dying to get out, so hopefully once Watch Me finds a home with audiences and gets some attention, I’ll have a chance to make a bigger, better horror flick.

Watch Me (2007)

We live in a world of spam attachments, viruses and other malicious content that comes through our email. Add to this the ever-accessible snuff films that circulate online, where anything and everything you can imagine is just a keystroke away. Low budget Australian film Watch Me has capitalized on this fear, spinning a very frightening story of one such file that circulates through people’s email accounts, manifesting itself as a vengeance-seeking ghost.

The "Watch Me" file contains a short but horrifying snuff film. Whoever opens and watches the film is met with death in the form of a pale, red-haired ghost. When Tess’ (Frances Marrington) friend Jill is violently killed and others who watch the film follow (including her boyfriend Jared), Tess sets out to solve the mystery of the "Watch Me" file. She enlists the help of local “freak boy,” Taku (writer and producer Sam Voutas), who is a sleazy dealer of illegal, rare and strange films and pornography. Taku has his own plans, though, and might be more dangerous to Tess than the ghostly redhead seeking revenge. Racing against the clock and Taku's ulterior motives, Tess scrambles to stop the "Watch Me" file from spreading to its next, unsuspecting victim.

The relevance of the film in this day and age only adds to the spookiness of the events unfolding on screen. The film works wonderfully on screen, with sure-fire directing, superb acting, a straight-forward storyline and plenty of creepy, tense scenes. It comes as a big surprise that this is director Melanie Ansley’s first feature film. The direction is so professional and clean that I though Ansley had at least a few other films under her belt before Watch Me!

Ansley, who also helped pen the script with Voutas, obviously took cues from Asian frightfests Ringu, Ju On and One Missed Call, but nonetheless ended up with a highly enjoyable film. Some of the scares will remind viewers of Ju On (or the bastardized American version The Grudge) as will the jerky movement of the red-haired ghost. The storyline feels much like Ringu (or American remake The Ring), but Watch Me manages to stand on its own and deliver a great film, regardless of similarities to Asian horror films.

As for the acting, it is top-notch, especially leads Marrington (playing Tess) and Voutas (playing Taku). Voutas’ Taku oozes creepiness and delivers a layered performance and Marrington manages to look and act natural while her character goes through many different emotions. Both actors manage to pull off their characters realistically, a real feat for most independent productions.

It helps that the script (again, written by Ansley and Voutas) is tight and the characters are all well-developed. The story is presented as very straight-forward and to the point with a few twists and turns to keep things interesting (yet, surprisingly always believable). It has solid pacing throughout, and though some might call it slow at times, its well worth your patience.

The ghost (played by Tanya McHenry) is very creepy in a Pippi-Longstocking-Gone-Bad kind of way. Her bright red hair, red-painted fingernails and yellow dress come into sharp contrast with her pale white skin. The physical look of the ghost differs very much from the typical black-haired, drably dressed ghosts that usually populate Asian horror. Don’t let her cheery dress fool you though; this girl is out for revenge against anyone who enjoys the "Watch Me" file! As an added bonus, the ghost pulls an Audition and is very handy with a needle and thread…

Watch Me is a tense, spooky film that has several wonderful scare scenes. The one that struck me the most was near the beginning, when a man who had just viewed the file sets about looking for his pet in the kitchen. Looking in the cabinets, he puts his hand on the counter to stand up…and the rest you just have to see yourself. Another great scene is where Tess is fumbling around in a darkened closet after following a trail of blood…you just know something is going to jump out! Or is it? Another scene shows Tess taking a relaxing bath…only she’s not alone. With so many great scenes, it’s hard to choose a favorite!

I also enjoyed the underlying social commentary in the film. It really makes you think about who and what are behind all the “homemade” films floating around the internet. The ready availability of anonymous snuff films and pornography over the internet to almost anyone is a frightening thought. The film is never preachy (not in the least!) but it does make you stop and think about the negative effects of pornography. Violence and degradation towards women in snuff and pornography films and their repercussions are also themes prevalent in the film. Overall, though, it is about a person’s pain and her retaliation against anyone who gets pleasure out of her suffering.

If you enjoy Asian horror or a good old fashioned ghost story (with a modern technology twist thrown in) I highly suggest you check out Watch Me.

Check out Watch Me's official site

Demonsamongus (2006)

Joe has recently moved to Miranda Falls, a small and quiet rural town in Australia, to work on his thesis about the negative effects of advertising and mass consumption. He comes looking for peace and quiet, but soon finds himself witness to a horrific evil. One night, he wakes to find a demon chomping down on his cats. He flees through the forest to the nearest neighbors’ house, but finds them already victims of the demon. Soaked in blood, he becomes the cops’ primary suspect. On the run from both demons and the authorities, he enlists the help of local convenience store clerk Kylie, who has also witnessed the demon’s destruction. Meanwhile, Hollywood advertising executive Ed Winters returns to Miranda Falls to investigate the death of his ex-wife and family. Arriving at the blood-stained farmhouse, Ed encounters the Devil himself, who makes him a deal he can’t refuse…Can Joe stop the evil before it spreads to the rest of the world?

Demonsamongus is a wholly different horror film, directed by Stuart Simpson, which focuses on aesthetics as much as blood ‘n’ guts with great success. The first thing I noticed about the film was that it was beautifully shot. Scenes switch from black and white, to black and white with saturated colors, to full color shots, without ever alienating the audience. Other shots are surreal, giving the film a nightmarish quality. I would compare Simpson’s style to early David Lynch with a dash of Evil Dead-era Sam Raimi thrown in. The film is grainy, giving it that wonderfully gritty ‘70s feel. The composition of each scene is stunning, from showing a decaying town and the desolate countryside to Joe on the run from the demons and Kylie exploring a cave where the demons are hiding. From the stunning direction and cinematography, Simpson hits the right emotional cues and evokes a visceral response from the audience. In other words, Demonsamongus is a downright frightening and creepy film that’ll give you the heebie jeebies and leave you looking over your shoulder!

The acting is solid throughout, even with a few fun scenes evoking Peter Jackson’s film Dead Alive. Nathaniel Kiwi does a great job as Joe, going from strange outsider arriving in a new town to a man slightly off his rocker who listens to a talking ax while killing the demons. Peter Roberts plays both Ed Winters and Sergeant Geoff, two completely different roles that he plays perfectly! He plays them so well, in fact, that I didn’t know the same actor was playing both roles until the credits rolled. The rest of the cast, including Laura Hesse as Kyle, also do a fantastic job in their respective roles.

The demons themselves are very scary. The move around jerkily, but sure give chase to prey quickly! The scene where Kylie investigates a cavern with a video camera reminded me of The Descent and there is also a scene that is very Ringu-like. The makeup and special effects, done by Nick Kocsis, are all spectacularly done. From the demons to the carnage they leave behind, the blood and guts in the film do not disappoint!

The soundtrack and score were also extremely well done that I would be remiss in not mentioning them here. From alt-rock to country and folk tracks, the soundtrack is stellar, really adding to the unsettling atmosphere. The original music, done by Clare Whitcombe, is also a real standout. The music is haunting and lends itself nicely to the ominous atmosphere of the film.

Speaking of sound in the film, the noises in the film even lend to the menacing atmosphere. Creaky floorboards, buzzing lights, rustling brush and even a shower running all manage to sound threatening. Demonsamongus even won for Best Sound at the 7^th Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2006 and it is easy to see why.

The social commentary about the negative effects of advertising and the evils of mass consumption is portrayed quite intelligently here without ever being overbearing. While the commentary is present, it does not weigh down the overall story. I would its presentation to the social commentary contained in Romero’s film Night of the Living Dead. It is subtle, but it still packs a punch upon reflection.

The extras on the disc include deleted scenes, a making of featurette, trailers and a short film entitled Sickie, directed by Stuart Simpson.

Demonsamongus is a brilliant indie film from Australia that contains many artistic and creative touches while never forgetting it is a horror film. Director Stuart Simpson has crafted an unsettling, bloody and frightening film that is not to be missed by horror fans that appreciate trippy, surreal imagery along with their gore!

Troma Films has picked up worldwide distribution rights for this fine film, so look for it coming soon! Check the official Demonsamongus site for more info!

Available from Amazon!

Wolf Creek (2005)

Saturday night my lil' sister and I huddled up on the couch to watch a movie we had both waited a while to see - Wolf Creek. All I knew about this movie was that it was Australian and involved three kids stuck in the desolate Outback with a sadistic killer. I was hoping to be scared a little to a lot. I had heard this film being compared to the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so I was pretty stoked.

Wow, was I wrong...this movie was horrible!

Wolf Creek begins with friends Ben, Kristy and Liz taking a road trip across Australia to Wolf Creek Crater in the Outback. They are happy and relaxed, and there is a burgeoning romance between Liz and Ben. This part of the film is slow, dreamlike and lazy - a serenity that is shattered abruptly at around the 55 minute mark. They arrive at their destination, Wolf Creek, and spend a few hours hiking. Back at their car, they realize that all their watches have stopped working. Not only that, but their car won't even start. Soon, headlights approach and an Outback man by the name of Mick offers to tow their car back to his place. Here, he says, he can fix it and they can be back on the road in no time. The kids feel their isn't something quite right about him, but his back-woods charm convinces them to trust Mick. He tows them further and further into the Outback, hundreds of miles away from a soul, to his encampment. Around a roaring campfire, they all joke and talk until one by one they drift asleep. Everyone, that is, except for Mick who is still "working" on their car. Here the DVD hit about 55 minutes and the three friends entered into a nightmare.

After a full night and day's sleep, Liz wakes up bound and gagged. She escapes and follows Kristy's screams to a warehouse where she is being tortured by Mick. Yada yada running screaming running running bleeding screaming running yada yada...(Translation: Liz and Kristy escape together, end up trashing their escape truck, Liz goes back to Mick's camp to steal another car, finds some interesting tidbits, ends up getting killed anywho - lots of screaming, running, bleeding).

After Liz doesn't return, Kristy runs runs runs and just keeps running until she hits a main road. Here, a man who stops to help her just ends up dead, as does she after a quick car chase with Crocodile Dundee (I mean Mick, but whatever, I wasn't caring at this point).

So, both Liz and Kristy are dead - but where's that clever Ben? Ah, he's still holed up in one of the torture chambers. He also manages to escape from a crucified pose Mick has devised for him and runs runs runs until he passes out by a road. Luckily for him, some German tourists pick him up and he is safe.

The end of the film states that no traces of Mick or the girls were ever found, and after being held under suspicion, Ben is released.

Geesh, was I ever bored with this movie! I was just never really scared, and that's my big complaint with this movie. I was horrified by some of the things Mick does and says to the girls, but never truly scared. Torture scenes can be scary (see Audition), but the ones from Wolf Creek were just there to horrify or exploit the audience. And why the heck did they leave Ben out of the action for so long? That seemed like a major mistake to me.

I liked the beautiful shots of the Aussie Outback and the slow start to the movie. It made me wait for the action, and I love me some delayed gratification! Yet, when the action did start, it was a major let down.

My lil' sis, who also enjoys horror movies, did not like this movie either. At the end, we both said, "Geez, that was dumb!"

Ugh...what a waste of a Netflix movie! And to those of you who have compared this to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...all I can say is, FOR SHAME!!

Check it out on Amazon!

Undead (2003)

Undead is an Australian movie that focused more on the alien side of the zombie outbreak. The plot was a bit convoluted, but I thought the ending was pretty good. It started out pretty funny, but took itself too seriously after that. There were too many abductions and not enough zombie action. There were definitely no scares...boo!

I just wasn't digging this one...too much alien crap goin on! However, if you are looking for something unique that blends zombies and aliens, you may just want to check this out.

Find it on Amazon!

Originally posted on Fatally-Yours.com.