Coffin Rock (2009)

The simplest answer isn't always the easiest answer

A couple, Robert and Jessica, near the coast in Australia, have a large house and established business to their name but want to fill in the whole picture with a child before biological clocks run out. The wife is enthusiastic but the husband feels some shame from his boys failing to swim the channel home. They go to a clinic to check sperm count when the receptionist, Evan, takes a liking to Jessica from a distance as she waits in the lobby. He travels to their little fishing village and blends in with a job at the local crayfish factory. She's a simple but outgoing small town woman in a largely male workforce who's only dealt with the occasional jerk in a bar. Evan acts imposing towards her all the while berating and muttering to himself. Soon enough he waits till she's drunk and emotionally torn with her husband and they have a spur-of-the-moment quickie.



She flat out states her regrets for their brief entanglement but Evan quickly turns emotionally attached to the point of obsession. It's more than just puppy love but some kind of psychotic abandonment issue, along with volatile tendencies of anger. Jessie has a conundrum on her hands, as someone else spied the incident, she doesn't want her husband to find out and she's now pregnant with the strong possibility Evan's the father. Robbie sees that she's pregnant and gets their friends and family excited over what he assumes is his. Though the best news turns to the worst as Jessie is getting shaken up with random visits from Evan that are getting more and more dangerous with not only herself but loved ones caught in the middle as well.

The film turns over to the destruction of relationships with one side worse and far more calculative in their deceit than the other to the point of a cat and mouse game looking like the former animal upgraded to a starved lion. It makes the experience more depressing than a challenge to correct what went wrong or coming with something more to leave with for contemplation for the audience besides the obvious: I'm not going let that happen to me! It was strange to set the tone with some authenticity, only to then turn over to an over-the-top, somewhat straightforward psychotic thriller of the cinema invention kind. It made the story go from marching to the beat of its own drum to producing shuffled around scenarios that only come with the territory of the genre.

The movie gives little to grab onto in the downward spiral after tentatively going through the messages of trusting strangers too soon and cheating aspects. It makes the experience harder to watch as it shifts more and more over the deep end with little fighting chance in sight to the point of begging, squirming and pleading of the lead actress. Not to mention, the motivations, as kooky as they are, aren't always outlined--such as the initial hookup being jumped into like an everyday thing, or why others were terrorized or made to suffer. The film creates some fear of the what-if-it-happened-to-you type, though momentarily grabbing your chest from the possible what-if compared to actually watching it play out are two different things. It turns into one stupid move after the next when more than enough opportunities are presented that are usually of the simple communicating kind. Honesty versus hurting someone? This was more than just a little case of irresponsibility.



As a thriller it's paced well enough and there are still some scenes that carry tension, some here and there memorable quality and an uncomfortable feeling as she gets stalked and pushed against a wall with an omnipresent breath in her face. There's a different range of emotions used as the story progresses from, Lisa Chappell, as Jess, being the regular, easy going woman and supportive partner at work and at home, to then trying to get out of a mud slicked hole with her hands behind her back. I'm disappointed that they didn't make her a little more tough with her above average height and confident ability to work side by side men in the town. Sam Parsonson, as Evan with an Irish accent, definitely takes a few of the scenes all out and manages to create some distinctions to his personality that come with a few unpredictable situations of what he'll do next. This gives room to make the characters and the setting carry some realism--even starting out with light drama and their day to day lives, some humor and raw innocence--though it still carries some melodramatic and exaggerated scenes past a certain point to up the ante and make it more of a cinematic experience than something that you'd actually believe could happen.

Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Rupert Glasson
Stars: Lisa Chappell, Sam Parsonson, Robert Taylor
Link: IMDB

Razorback (1984)

A wild boar, urban Americans and Australian rednecks

A man named Jake Cullen puts his grandson to sleep when suddenly a huge razorback boar charges through his home. The man is blamed for the events and goes to court with the evidence being suspicious but ultimately inconclusive. Two years later and a woman from New York, Beth Winters, heads to the town of Gamulla, Australia to do investigative coverage of kangaroo and wallabies being slaughtered in excess. She gets closed mouths and dirty looks of the we-don't-like-your-kind-'round-here type at the local bar and inn, only to stop into Cullen who now dedicated his life to going exclusively after boars: "There's something about blasting the shit out a razorback that brightens up my whole day." Soon enough the must-unravel-the-truth-no-matter-the-cost woman not only has a run in with two violent and sadistic local brothers that want to teach her a lesson, but also the monstrous razorback that's returned from years earlier. Her attentive husband, Carl, goes to Gamulla to look into his wife's disappearance, runs into Cullen, the two that initially terrorized his wife and also meets another lass named Sarah (Arkie Whiteley - R.I.P. 2001) who tracks the boars.


After a certain point, the story is somewhat loose as it moves from one thing to the next, all the while building up to have a final show down with the razorback who by that point seems more cinematic and fantasy than made to be the real deal. With such open land mass, somehow it's able to elude hunters that canvas every square inch and then come about with a sixth sense for confrontation; this isn't an open body of water like in "Jaws" but a place with little vegetation for hiding. It makes it seem like it's boarding on gimmick if it weren't for the locations and locals being utilized along with it. The razorback comes and goes conveniently as to how the story is holding up and when it's needed. When it shows up it's a raging beast with a nearly impenetrable body that only has one mode of attack: charge. The razorback plays both sides of the fence by taking out bad people and good, so in that it keeps itself less formulaic and straightforward.


There's anywhere from light to dark humor thrown in to make the events a little more fun than overly serious: some of them misplaced, some of them genuinely funny. This has a peculiar atmosphere at points as you get used to Gamulla and its gun in one hand, beer in the other Australian country folk that are so over-the-top with their sayings and makeshift, do-it-themselves modes of living that they might give some "Texas Chainsaw" cretins a run for their money. The score, performed on a synthesizer, delivers both a distinctive and mood enhancing tone, though sometimes it can be intrusive by hitting higher strings at bombastic levels to the point of being louder than anything else. There are a number of atmospheric scenes when out in the brush with certain lighting tricks, obscured view and odd noises to make it seem both serene and also dangerous, like anything could pop out at any time in this out of reach area where some of the locals might be just as dangerous as to what's lurking in the shadows.



To its credit, "Razorback" isn't always predictable--apart from the whole regular people shtick that have to handle the problem instead of authorities--but then, on the other hand, it only takes its premise and story so far. This has a share of characters yet doesn't keep a steady focus on a specific one for too long, not to mention the razorback even less. By jumping around it keeps it a little more general and simplistic by not always treading deeper to be a closer friend to share secrets but more an amusing acquaintance that comes and goes with idle conversation. Gregory Harrison, as Carl, seems to represent the you or me character that finds himself in an unfamiliar situation and how he has to solve it without always making him a thoroughly captivating hero till he can work up the courage; essentially the finale is the most exemplary but before that he doesn't always capture the frame. Bill Kerr takes over every scene he's in with some memorable lines as Cullen and should have been shown more of. Some insignificant scenes are grazed over to help it move steadily along, while others have some tones that clash and seem exaggerated. The subtext shows the greed of certain hunters, how they want more and more or don't care at what cost they get it. Along with two men who have a determination after tragic events robbed something from them that turns into a vendetta at whatever the cost.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, The Shadow)
Stars: Judy Morris, Bill Kerr, Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, David Argue, Chris Haywood
Link: IMDB

Damned by Dawn (2009)

Having a wicked time with grandma

This low-budget Australian horror plays on the legend of the Banshee, combined with evil ghosts and your loved ones coming back as the living dead. The story is incredibly simplistic as this plays more so on a steady mood and the survival horror genre with characters running back and forth in the midst of spooky settings to save their lives.

A woman named Claire is visiting her family with her boyfriend Paul at her family's farm house. The place is filled with shrouding fog, naked trees, playful shadows and thunder storms on the rise. A spirit is seen roaming the forest when Paul picks up take out food but like everyone else is oblivious to the ominous signs and doesn't trust his own eyes. Her grandmother, Dawn, is on her death bed and they speak about the mysterious vase Claire was entrusted with but she doesn't make sense of it at the time; her Nana's ambiguity is the catalyst for the events and Claire has to clean up the mess due to her senility--not exactly the most effective transitional mode to perpetuate the story. Before bed there is a mysterious screaming sound coming from afar. Some of the family goes out to investigate and soon enough the piercing sounds are identified as coming from a tattered clothed woman with bleeding eyes and a supernatural aura that allows her to float--the Banshee herself. Soon enough the dead start to rise from the earth to take the family members lives one by one.


The major strength of this film is its atmosphere and settings and honestly not much else. A share of this looks to be some kind of dreamscape in that it has its own altered reality. The movie is persistent to the point where it makes it seem like an hour and twenty minute thrill ride with exaggerated jumps, scares and loud noises to jar your senses. Likewise, it doesn't have substance but it does play on surface sensations. Though the actual underlying story and character archetypes after awhile start to feel paper thin and to lose intrigue despite the constant mood--that's usually why those rides last less than twenty minutes. After a while, the situations feel more like random events in a Halloween haunted house than part of a linear storyline where the characters walk and run around not knowing which angle they're going to have a fright from or what to do for that matter themselves. Their actions are simple: run, trip, explore and when lucky shoot with a rifle. This has some breaks where the characters charge themselves and try to figure it out: some moments work well with anticipation, while others feel like they're stretching out the time with filler.


"Damned by Dawn" includes the standard survival movie template: the most capable character perseveres as those around her die until she can figure out how to stop the antagonist. Though instead of having some kind of intuition to make her someone to carry the picture with staying power like, say, "The Evil Dead," which this takes influence from, she appears to get lucky and without always getting a solid footing on the ground. The CGI monsters are about as dated looking as a '90s Playstation video game, though to its benefit are often covered up by the excessive use of fog; it's to the point where it makes the pool halls of "The Hustler" look like breathable air. Some of the other effects are effective and by contrast it makes these noticeably distracting. The dead come in a few forms: flying skeletons, grim reapers, zombies. Their mechanics are inconsistent in that they move quickly at some points and then at others, when the characters are wide open, start to creep as if they suddenly forgot that they can actually speed along. The dialogue and performances are hit and miss. In the calmer scenes they hold their own, though when some of the action picks up it's as if they're speaking from the script instead of becoming a personality in their self. Makes you wish they would have kept a few lines to themselves but then instead spoke up to fill the audience in better about some parts to its conclusion. Recommended only for someone who wants a simple supernatural horror to completely shut off their brain with and let themselves go with mood.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Brett Anstey
Link: IMDB

Lake Mungo (2008)

A person not removed

This is a faux docu-drama with elements of mystery and the supernatural that revolves around a young woman named Alice Palmer who recently passed in her home town in Australia. She went missing in a local lake and the family doesn't want to let go right away or accept the inevitable. A decomposed woman's body is found, yet they partly drag out if it might actually be her and that her life couldn't have abruptly ended that day when there was so much more that could have been. Back at their house, there are strange noises, nightmares, sightings and even suspicious photographs to what seems to be her physical presence in the time that follows. The mother seeks out a psychic who wants to hold a seance. Secrets come out regarding the family after the fact, the psychic in question, as well as that involve Alice that no one else knew about her with immediate relatives and friends.

The slow, evolving pace is what makes this film work. It's not quick and upbeat or hip and trendy, but something that captures the scenery and her life in glimpses and flashes. There are a share of recorded mediums that it transforms from: some crisp and steady, some grainy and shaky. The latter comes with some eerie and unsettling scenes that eventually make your eyes scan the surrounding shots for hidden clues--nothing is what it seems is the impression. It has a very deliberate flow to the point of sucking in a viewer and getting involved to the point of forgetting that this is just a film. Though it's somewhat depressing watching a documentary film, even if fictional, about a young person that's life abruptly ends with only bits and pieces as to what she was up till that point. The story is concerned about her past and how it affects all that knew her now, but the mind still wanders into this dark territory nonetheless of what could have been.

The film gives off a general sense of regret and melancholia in that she keep things from them that were beyond her teenage years that caused her to silently suffer without anyone else knowing since she had very few to turn to or trust. The home video footage becomes instantly haunting that the person you're seeing no longer exists and little did she know of it at that time that it's her last images. The mother has the hardest time letting go and grasps on to any information, whether good or bad, about her daughter's life. The brother was also close and uses ways to cope with his late sister that some question whether it's rational or justified. The father and boyfriend speak with a little more pep that sometimes show glimpses of emotional restraint, as well as friends, co-workers and investigators who give their take.

"Lake Mungo" manages to keep itself interesting with a steady focus and share of revelations. Some of them feel a little manipulated, for fixating on one way for a period, then turning it around and that not being the case at all. As well as a few revelations jump forward a little quicker than others. Watching this gives off some reminders of the sad and wrenching film "Ordinary People," though there's still some positive, heartfelt and dramatic interviews that reflect human loss and then how to cope with the fact through a share of outlets that gives this a little bit of resolve despite its somber mood at times. Others who've had someone abruptly pass don't always get to share the after effects like they did, or to others that would have never known this girl in this particular place and time. Some areas are dry to give room to form an opinion, while others are leaning more towards the paranormal being possible without the other side getting a chance to breath. This isn't a film to just put on since the experience might linger and brood in one's mind or possibly turn over to being upset with the filmmakers for making it so realistic.

Rating: 8/10

Director: Joel Anderson
Link: IMDB

Dying Breed (2008)

Fact and fiction collide in the backwoods of Australia

This is mostly a formulaic retelling of the backwoods horror film subgenre, though it still comes with some added differences. "Dying Breed" is not trying to be a monumental film or strictly fit in, but include a few tweaks to an already established template. It has the usual amount of taboo breakers such as cannibalism and inbreeding but it plays out as a more gradual and less in your face film compared to others that have amped up the level of atrocities since "Deliverance" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with some real life legends to make it come more to life...or death however you want to look at it because usually these films come with stacks of fresh corpses.

A prisoner named Alexander Pearce escaped back in the 1800s in Tasmania, Australia. A group of four are trekking out in the wilds to this region in present day to search out the thought to be extinct Tasmanian Tiger--a carnivorous dog/wolf/marsupial hybred with strips on its back resembling a tiger--that hasn't been officially documented in 100 years. A woman on the trip named Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) had a sister that incurred an accident years earlier and she wants to pick up her research where she left off. Her boyfriend Matt (Leigh Whannell) scored a favor from a wild and prankster friend Jack (Nathan Phillips) who also brought along his girlfriend Rebecca (Melanie Vallejo) for the experience. The level of tourism in the area is sparse and the group soon finds some trouble from the male dominated locals with damaged property and snooping eyes.


The next day they head deeper and decide to stay in a cave for the night. At one point they think they spot a Tiger and immediately things turn for the worst when one of them gets attacked and they try and search that person out but get separated. A little girl they encountered back where the locals live suddenly appears along with two other men looking for her with a revelation about Nina's deceased sister. This doesn't play on the usual terrors at first, but instead goes for some mistrust of others and uncomfortableness since they're dealing with strange people in an unfamiliar setting. It plays on an anxiety angle of surviving a set of dire circumstances instead of charging forward with a pounding chest. The issue is you're not always given substantial amounts of scares, action or a lot of collective information to go on at a time since this is aiming more towards being a subtle film. It unfolds in the moment by moment as if it's leading up to something but then that something doesn't fully culminate into making everything you just seen entirely worthwhile since it's partly obvious by the time it gets there. It does have areas that are stretching it but by including that added bit of measurement it attempts to give some authenticity to its plot. That works towards it and also somewhat holds it back. More often than not they strike a balance with some built up anticipation and a level of being trapped by both nature and man by doing all you can to get out.

All and all there are a few twists and turns to surprise or mess with the audience and some stand out scenes to remember for the experience. Though it could have used more of them to truly clench the total package instead of playing it safe on the formula in some areas. There are some jokes, seriousness and caring tones among the roles to give some divided personality. The performances held their own and filled out their respective parts with separation of character. Some parts include charisma without being distracting or over doing it, while others feel like caricatures of their type, such as Jack being the loud and macho kind each time and the boyfriend Matt being the sympathetic crutch for the duration of the film. There isn't much on growth with the characters, as they go in one way, use what they have and remain in that state. This does well with a share of showing rather than telling of its storyline, which steers it away from potential cringe worthy one liners that are usually for the audience's sake but can take one out of the experience. This is still more towards being a tasteful film with the subject matter at hand. The gory scenes aren't always over-the-top but more for necessary shock value, which can leave this somewhat tame for some ravenous gore hounds but still possess terror for the general viewer who's not accustomed to their fellow man being turned inside out.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Jody Dwyer
Stars: Leigh Whannell, Mirrah, Foulkes, Nathan Phillips, Melanie Vallejo
Link: IMDB

Primal (2010)

What great teeth you have!

Many, many years ago, 12, 000 years ago to be exact, a primitive man is painting on a rock face until he gets attacked from behind by something unexplained. Fast forward to the present day Australia with six individuals trekking some ways out for those same rock paintings for one of their studies. The first sign of trouble hits when they park and take a shortcut. "There's something wrong with that tunnel, we shouldn't go through it," says Anja before she blackouts from a claustrophobic panic attack...or something else. "Some point, you got to get over this," says Mel as the rest still walk through and have her drive around alone. Hey, what are friends there for?

This begins somewhat innocently with random jokes and pokes of fun. It's obvious from the beginning which character has tenacity when the gears of horror start to grind, but the filmmakers still gave surprises as to who gets it apart from their originally perceived character archetypes. They ignore a strange animal attack, and then live it up with some love making, substance abuse and acoustic guitar playing around a fire--a bunch of hippies they are! Mel goes skinny dipping, only to come out of the water covered in leeches and eventually show signs of fever and bloody gums. Soon enough tensions flare about who should have done what or if they should leave or not, and in the process find out what they really mean to each other as friends and companions.

They discover more odd organisms when microscopic insects eat through objects. They can't get help till morning, except by then Mel gets transformed with superhuman strength and a long set of chompers. Survival mode kicks in for the rest of the film with a bunch of in-fighting, denials, ruthlessness and haphazard plans to make it out alive from their former friend Mel who now wants to eat them without mercy. It's hard to feel sorry for nearly all of the characters because most range from either being too general to just plain unlikable. Though there are a few setups with irony to give grin to their folly. And, of course, there's going to be blood and some gore when they get it to keep the lynch mob satisfied.

The beginning has a decent exposition that unfolds the events in a forward motion, though when it comes time for the survival aspect it jumps back and forth, causing the element of suspense to reinvent its own wheel. The monstrous woman randomly appearing and disappearing comes with some effective pop outs when she shrieks her head off, but starts to lose its impact when she's not given more to do beyond a few modes for awhile till someone else turns. The terrain isn't always used to their advantage rather than staying in a general, unmemorable area, which makes it rely on the characters to carry the events. This is going for the tried and true and it unabashedly knows it with a few scenarios of the tongue-and-cheek kind, as well as a few jabs at their own devices and storyline.

This requires you to keep bending your imagination the further it goes as potential explanations are only alluded to. Especially by its finale when a random, choppy looking CGI entity appears but feels physically misplaced despite being loosely hinted at earlier. That ambiguity might have been fine to leave room for mystery, but there aren't always enough substantial or diverting scenes in the meantime to make you forget about the technicalities when they're just running around to save their own skin or deciding if they should kill or not. It's not really ponderous or completely emotionally driven stuff to get you fully locked in because most of the characters by that point are showing less and less strength that you could possibly relate to and are pushing more and more away by being selfish, indecisive or whiny. Not really the most cinematic of times even with the humor and bloodshed, which carries it only so far. In "The Descent," for instance, they're working with and against each other but have a goal to get out to the other side, which you know they're not going to all make it but it creates more tension for its duration with their friends, the creatures, the terrain and the light at the end of the tunnel all competing at once.

There's some potential with "Primal" and it has some fun in the meantime. The dialogue doesn't make you want to slap your forehead like other pictures and the performers give out some serious effort for what they're working with, even if they don't always put everything they've got into it. And the picture quality looks pretty sharp and consistent with some inventive modes, if not always capturing the best vantage points.

Rating: 5/10

Director: Josh Reed
Stars: Krew Boylan, Zoe Tuckwell-Smith, Wil Travel, Rebekah Foord, Damien Freeleagus, Lindsay Farris
Link: IMDB

Storm Warning (2007)

Don't stray too far from home

"Storm Warning" is an Aussie film that takes on hard-to-mistake characteristics of "Deliverance" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" still some 30 years later. This likewise has the wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time city slickers, the isolated location and who could forget the dysfunctional family to clench the formula.

Are you, or someone you know, the type of person that needs a solid reason to get angry or inflict violence? This film is aimed more at the individual that even when pushed has a tendency to let conflict whiz right over their head. "Storm Warning" takes one regular lawyer and one significant other with spiced up French accent and throws them into a situation that leaves them paralyzed by fear. The first half of the film heads in the direction of "Funny Games" and "The Strangers" with too-timid-for-their-own-good folks pitifully matched up against some really shady, don't-bring-these-guys-home-to-your-mother type of characters. Though the fortunate difference is when the going gets rough, these regular people might find out they have more primitive survival skills in them than they thought.

This has no doubt been done before, so there aren't a load of surprises to unwrap or leave gaping wounds from. Though the film is effective in that it can take the audience out of their comfort zone and give a somewhat disgusted feeling from these crusty-toothed individuals that missed a few key links in the gene pool. "Storm Warning" works more for the individual who maintains a calm environment and isn't too distanced from routine, because for someone who can instantly spark anger or took a few can't-wait-to-try-these-out techniques in martial arts, this film would have been most likely over in 30 minutes. But that's just it, these people seem to represent that gal or guy that you wouldn't recognize in a crowd or read about in the local paper for on-the-spot heroism. This shows that some wear their caveman attire on the outside, while others repress that due to adaptive, modern conditions.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend, Valentine)
Stars: Nadia Fares, David Lyons, Mathew Wilkinson, John Brumpton
Link: IMDB

Road Kill (2010)

Stranded and no way out except a road train

Two gals and two guys in the middle of the remote, dusty, sweltering outback in Australia get at first taunted and then hit by a "road train": a large semi-truck pulling two double long trailers. Their own car is wrecked and one of them is injured. The only mode of transport back anywhere is the road train up ahead that hit them just prior but now stopped. They approach, but no one is inside. A man appears out of nowhere and starts to shoot at them. They take off in the gigantic vehicle to get away.

The four soon find themselves in another bind as they mysteriously pass out and are parked off to the side of the road and the engine won't restart. Two head off to find help but then part ways to a supposed shack that was seen despite being passed out, and the other awaits a car to miraculously drive through. Tensions start to flare with the stress of the situation about two of them cheating in the past and the new girl being the third wheel. They soon find out something strange is going on as they start to feel off, the truck's running on who knows what and the back of the trailers enclose some more odd items.

This was professionally shot but could have gotten some more closeups for tension, and the acting was for the most part adequate if not award winning. Though it's hard to take the character Craig (Bob Morley) seriously as he does the suave and charming remarks on point but forces the tortured and dramatic scenes with facial expressions that don't line up or believably translate. Some portions feel like "eerie" filler by luring you along with ambiguous hints as to what's really going on and how it all functions. Things sometimes work, sometimes don't and are passed off on either being all so "weird" or as an in-joke and blamed on dingos; seems too convenient for the writer to not have to fill too much backstory to either keep it completely mysterious or some of the mechanics just plain don't work. It mainly concentrates on the horror of it by showing how they got trapped by a revolving door, as well as it goes to show that if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere that the people you thought of as closest to you are now your biggest competition like the underlying theme present in "The Descent."

This isn't new stuff going on here, as this was a play on "Christine" and "Maximum Overdrive" where your disbelief is suspended to ignore the facts and leave room towards the supernatural. Though there were too many plot holes and unexplained occurrences going on. The biggest mistake the filmmakers did here was to leave enough down time between significant scenarios happening to be able to pull it apart as a viewer with nothing else to do in the meantime. Keep us busy and our imaginative minds will open, otherwise it's going to be crossed arms and side-to-side head nods. If they closed the gaps in their story, made the flow constant and more thrilling, and explained a little more backstory, this actually had the potential to be a better experience.

Rating: 3/10

From Black to Red recommends instead: "Christine." This is a film that involves some commentary about the geek turning into the cool guy when his new car gives him the power to do so.

Director: Dean Francis
Stars: Bob Morley, Sophie Lowe, Georgina Haig
Link: IMDB