Xavier Samuel plays a depressed and troubled teen who feels responsible for the car accident that killed his dad. He now spends most of his time smoking dope and listening to metal and grunge music like it’s 1992. His girlfriend (Victoria Thaine) is slowly bringing the young man out of his personal hell. It’s school formal time, and Samuel is asked out by the rather plain Lola (Robin McLeavy). He informs her that he is already attending with Thaine. Unfortunately, McLeavy isn’t one to take rejection well. In fact, she takes it even worse than Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”. So she does what any good bunny-boiler would do and kidnaps Samuel, bringing him to her isolated home, to meet her equally crazy dad (John Brumpton) and catatonic mum for a night of torture and pain. In a subplot, Samuel’s nerdy best friend (Andrew S. Gilbert) is having a most unusual time at the formal with his hot but rather hostile date, a surly Goth played by Jess McNamee.
This Aussie horror flick (with traces of very black comedy) won’t be to all tastes, but I’ve gotta admit it’s a unique and strangely compelling experience. Australia has done pretty well with horror in recent years and this is another one to add to the list. Coming from writer-director Sean Byrne the best way I can describe it is “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” meets “The River’s Edge”, a combination I honestly never thought I’d see in cinema, let alone enjoy it. It’s well-made in a grungy, pothead, pukey kinda way that’ll appeal to a certain audience.
The violence is extremely painful and visceral but not quite what I’d term ‘torture porn’. It’s more viscerally impactful than pornographically gory. This isn’t a lame “Saw” sequel, there’s more going on here than just relentless gore and violence. I’m still not sure if it’s entirely my kind of horror, but there’s definitely something here in its capturing of the more depressing and unpleasant aspects of teen life (depression, drug taking, suicide, loss of a parent, social status etc) and mixing it with the horror. It seems to be something about going through tough times and ultimately finding a reason to live. It might sound cheesy, but I genuinely think the film is saying something along those lines. Samuel’s character is a lost and deeply troubled soul who is going to need to find some kind of inner strength if he’s going to come out of this horrible situation alive. I really do think there’s an audience out there who are going to respond to this. I myself responded to that subtext even if the actual goings on weren’t entirely to my taste. It’s certainly nice to see a different kind of horror being tackled by Australian filmmakers.
It’s often well-acted, with crazy Robin McLeavy towering over all, with a completely insane performance that proves what I’ve long believed; Only crazy chicks listen to Kasey Chambers. This girl is terrific and I hope she goes places as soon as possible. As I said, the film has black comedy elements, it’s actually really funny at times. Samuel’s nerdy best friend Gilbert features in a slightly irrelevant but hilarious subplot where he’s at the school formal dance with the town Goth getting wasted and hoping to get lucky. I’m not quite sure if these scenes really gel with the main plot in any way other than thematic (i.e. The whole teenage/high school experience thing), but they are among the most amusing moments in the film.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Whilst it might not normally be something I find appealing, I admire this film for giving us a different kind of Aussie horror. This is one strange film and well-made.
