When is the last time you saw a pure horror film come out of the Outback? Father Geek has a hard time remembering a solid Down-Under horror movie. Now certainly many have had horror elements, Peter Jackson's given us a few of those, but a real honest to god Australian Horror motion picture, thats as rare as Wallabees in South Texas...
Hello Father Geek. Never having written to you before I have no idea of the protocol here but here goes. Call me Rodney Oz as I'm from Australia. Sorry if this is too long.
And the film I'm writing about is an Australian horror movie. Which is pretty unprecedented. Most Australian movies are either serious and meaningful, or painfully quirky comedies. For a totally unabashed commercial film to be produced is rare. So does it work? Based on the preview screening last night, the answer is: mostly.
It seems that 14 years ago, the movie "Hot Blooded" was cancelled when its director (Kylie Minogue) was murdered near the end of production. Now, a bunch of film school students decide to finish off the film. Trouble is, the film has a reputation of being cursed - every time someone tries to complete it, or even watch it, they die in bizarre horrible fashion.
The students recruit American actress Vanessa Turnbull, who played the sister of the killer in 'Hot Blooded', to finish the film by playing her own mother. Turnbull is played by Molly Ringwald - who looks rather disturbingly like Bette Midler here - as a fairly typical self-absorbed self-important Hollywood type, which doesn't go down too well with the down to earth Australian students. Pretty quickly, the killings start. Nearly everyone dies, and there's the predictable 'twist' ending (which I wish they'd left out).
So how are the killings? Fairly graphic and well done. Three decapitations, a severed thumb, a severed tongue (Minogue's - for the non-Aussies here, this is a sweet irony given her usual career as a 'singer'). Two people burned alive. A sharp pole through the throat (which somehow is not fatal), an impaling on a garden tap (!), a cameraman who gets it in the eye, and many slashings (I lost count of the cut throats). Lots of screaming and jumping in the cinema last night (some of it by me). The highlight is unquestionably the severed head whose eyes move to follow the killer.
It's done with the typical post-Scream film-reference style of humour, except that it's done with an AUSTRALIAN flavour, which means that it doesn't keep congratulating itself about its cleverness. If you 'get' the bodies-in-the-trees ala Friday the 13th, good, but the characters aren't going to stop and tell you. All the usual cliches are present, right down to not one but TWO shower scenes (and yes, one is with Molly, and no, you can't make out anything even in the fullbody shot. Sorry guys).
A brilliant stroke is to make the student playing the killer a Method actor who wears the mask of the killer ("Scarman") on and off the set. It allows the killer to get as close as he likes to everybody and act imtimidating without worrying them. It gets quite suspenseful when you're not sure which one you're watching on the screen.
But there is one BIG problem with the movie, and it has to do with the
identity of the killer. I doubt the makers had any intention of pushing that message - there's too
much visible pleasure at making a slasher film, too much enjoyment of
thinking up clever ways for characters to die. Here in Australia, where
there's no censorship push on screen violence, that 'message' isn't a
problem. Post-Columbine in the USA, it might smack of biting the hand that
feeds you So it's a good movie, with a probably unintentional ambigiuity. Aside from
Ringwald and maybe Minogue, there's no-one well-known in the cast (unless
you've seen Simon Bossell in 'The Castle'). But look out for Jessica
Napier, the heroine and would-be director of the extra footage, who manages
to be strong, resourceful and vulnerable all at once (and has the other
shower scene too). 'Cut' is from first-time director Kimble Rendall, who
used to be in the rock band Hoodoo Gurus, and has a mainly hardcore dance
soundtrack that is very, very loud. It's been picked up by something like
85 countries for distribution, so it'll make it to America eventually. If
you get a chance, check 'Cut' out. It won't change your life, but it's more
fun than most horror movies have been recently.
Rodney Oz
