There's no place like home, (ya cunts!)
I spent the last weekend horse riding in the blue mountains.
The sights were absolutely amazing; Australian bush land is a stunning mix of
lush ground cover and tall white gum trees which reach endlessly upwards. it is
also eerie as hell, riding through it I instantly understand the concept of
ancient spirits of Aboriginal dreamtime mythology.
The perfect film I can think of which displays this
perfectly and exquisitely is picnic at hanging rock (1975, Peter Weir). Watching this story of a girl’s disappearance
on a sleepy day in the bushland is like watching a dream. It is beautiful and
haunting piece of stunning cinematography. Picnic at hanging rock however, is
not a horror film.
While films can make foreign woods look beautiful and terrifying, there’s
something about having the familiar landscape to be lost in, that hits harder
for me. The whole cabin in the woods trope is a favourite of mine and having
been lost in the bush before, getting turned around on hikes. I really can
relate to the terror of being stranded in the middle of the bush, where
everything looks exactly the same; one big twisting expanse of sandstone, dry
leaf litter and tall, ghostly gums.
Decided to check out a little Aussie film from 2010, ‘Primal’
(directed by Josh Reed).
This film is good schlocky fun and doesn’t pretend
otherwise. Sometimes its refreshing to watch films which know what they are and
are completely fine with it- embrace the b movie within!
6 friend’s go into the Australian bush to camp out and study some newly
discovered Aboriginal rock paintings from a thousand years ago. This plan is
interrupted however when, after swimming in the nearby billabong, Mel becomes a
cannibalistic animal who proceeds to attack the rest of the campers and seemingly
give them as offerings to a mysterious cave
This film has everything I want in a fun horror film- loads
of bright red blood, gorgeous scenery, and an amusing script. Mel’s ‘Cabin
fever’ like transformation is gruesome and she makes a good monster but it’s
funny to see her sharp- toothed, covered in blood but running around in pink
pyjamas. The action in the movie is well paced with hardly any of it dragging
on, it is a well-timed movie that uses its hour and a half effectively.
As said above it is a good script with fairly believable and
normal Aussie vernacular. The c-bomb is dropped with in the first scene of the
film and again used effectively in a final showdown. I appreciate its use as I’m
quite partial to the word. One scene in particular
I liked was the showdown between the ‘alpha males’ of the group, which ends
satisfyingly and amusingly as throughout the film the two and been annoyingly fighting
for title of manliest man. I thought it was great way to note on how sexism and
gender expectations don’t benefit anyone, even men.
All in all this movie was great, I had such a good time watching
it that is was easy to excuse some badly delivered lines and a couple scenes of
shitty CGI. This is a really entertaining movie and isn’t that the point?
As a fun Ozploitation Flick, I give ‘Primal’ a 6/10.
As a fun Ozploitation Flick, I give ‘Primal’ a 6/10.
