When Has Hiding Out in a Cabin Ever Ended Well? (Lost Gully Road, 2017)

Ghosts can be “Nice Guys”  too

After screening throughout Australlia Lost Gully Road (2017, directed by donna McRae) is now available to rent or buy. The film is a supernatural thriller with a lot to say, without saying a lot.

Lucy sets up in an isolated cabin with no access to social media as she is hiding from an abusive ex-boyfriend. As the seclusion takes a toll on her mental health the cabin seems to be haunted by an equally obsessive and abusive spirit. 

Donna McRae has brought us a neat, self-contained haunted house film which gives us a new addition to the Australian Gothic subgenre. A subgenre which is growing thanks to films such as Lake Mungo and The Babadook. Australian gothic has been a more recent term to describe some supernatural horror that comes out of Australia, especially those who employ gothic tropes. Think of films such as Picnic At Hanging Rock- spooky, surreal, isolated. Lost Gully Road fits into this category.

Firstly, Lost Gully Road makes full use of the lush and frankly, gorgeous forest in Victoria, Australia. The films location is mesmerising to look at right down the curling ferns and native birds. How can somewhere so beautiful harbour a ghastly secret? We ask ourselves as we watch the film. Gone is the harsh and dusty outback of many other Australian horror films such as Wolf Creek or Wake In Fright- but what stays is the fear.

Lost Gully Road is a slow burn for sure- lucky for me, slow burn horror films are my favourite. At an hour and 20 it’s not like Lost Gully Road drags its feet in any way. It takes its time and cleverly throws us a few red herrings. The audience is left to double and triple think their perspective on the story, before the film hits us with some gore free but never the less confronting violence. There’s no reason why a film that takes its time to get where it’s going is a bad thing. For those who like a film with non-stop action there are plenty of other movies out there. All I’m saying is that some of my favourite horrors are dark dramas which end in horrific ways.

Lost gully road goes deeper than a haunted house film as it tackles the subject of violence against women through supernatural story. It translates the fear most women have of walking alone at night to people who cannot relate. Turns that vulnerability into something tangible to all genders in the audience. An unseen force which you cannot fight is a terrifying predicament for everyone to experience.

Comparisons to The Entity (1982) have been made but I think this is an unfair comparison. The Entity is exploitative, crude, heavily under the male gaze and seeks to make violence against women titillating. Lost Gully Road is none of those things,  in fact it is a film that directly and purposefully speaks out against them.

Adele Perovic clearly put in 110% into her performance as the film is nearly a one woman show. As our main character Lucy, she brings a lot of genuineness to the role and is a strong and admirable female lead. Perovic translates Lucy’s loneliness and boredom without boring the audience. There were also some great performances from the supporting cast especially John Brumpton who played the terrifying ‘Daddy’ in  2009’s cult hit The Loved Ones.

If you’re looking for an atmospheric ghost story with great characters and an important underlying message then look no further than Lost Gully Road.
I'm giving it a 7/10
Lost gully road is available now on DVD and VOD in Australia and New Zealand on from Umbrella Entertainment

https://www.umbrellaent.com.au/coming-soon/3808-lost-gully-road.html

The film is also screening in Los Angeles at LA Femme Film Fest October 13^th.

American Pie for Satanists (Bus Party To Hell, 2017)

I’ll pass on this ride, I’m still waiting for the Venga bus- I’ve heard its coming.

Bus Party To Hell (2017, directed by Rolfe Kanefsky) started off so well, the trailer was great, as was the movie poster. I am also a sucker for a theme song particularly written for a film so once the opening sequence kicked off with “We’re on a party bus, party bus to hell!” along with some generic rock chords, I was game for this film.

A bus full of partygoers travel across the Nevada desert to Burning Man festival. When the driver takes a short cut off-road, the sexed up group are attacked by a cult of cannibals, who are dressed (or not dressed, actually) as though this is a Mad Max xxx parody. The cult pick off the bus people in order to bring in ‘the chosen one.’

We begin with an opening sequence full of Tara Reid terribly delivering terrible dialog. She hacks apart some Halloween costume level looking mummies with a machete. This scene is hilariously bad and a lot of fun, and perhaps is the best part of the whole film.

The film has some great schlocky, gory deaths. Heads get split open or decapitated, blood and guts fly and limbs get thrown around. All the cool stuff you’d expect of a decent romp into B-grade cinema.

Midway through, Bus Party to Hell just devolves into softcore porn, basically excluding any audience member that isn’t a 13 year old boy. On top of this the film has a plot device involving  being ‘barely legal’  Here’s a tip- if you’re going to make a joke about someone being underage and “having” to have sex, Just don’t. It is 100% more likely to come off sleazy than funny.

Look I’m not a prude, I just think there are ways to have schlocky nudity (which the film does get right too) and there are ways not to. Fake blood and intestines poured over giant fake tits? Super! Blood orgies in the sand with live snakes? Neat-o! Coercion of a minor into sex framed as a hilarious joke? Yeah, you lost me on that one.

As far as the horror elements go- I liked them. I liked the cheesy dress ups and monster costumes. There is also a hilarious scene with live snakes spiders and lizards ‘attacking’ people but is just a montage of people screaming while lizards just chill on their heads. Its memorable and I wish the film had more of that kind of humour.

Sadly, my bubble was burst with this one. It just left me with a bad taste. It’s a shame as the film had some great one liners and had actors who put on fun performances. Maybe I’m just too cynical for exploitation films these days, or maybe their time is up.

Bus Party to Hell could have been a cult classic in years to come and maybe it still will. It has all the ingredients needed. By now you should know if you’re going watch this movie or not, if what I’ve described sounds like your kind of ‘so bad its good’ then check it out.

I’m giving it a 1 out of 10.

You can watch Bus Party to Hell On Demand on the platforms listed below:

What the hell did I just watch? (Hectic Knife, 2016)

I think I’ve been Tromatised by this film.

When I was asked to review a Troma film I agreed. I had an understanding of the company but  had not seen many  of it's movies. It wasn’t until I actually watched one of their latest acquisitions HECTIC KNIFE (2016, directed by Greg DeLiso), that I really sat down and said to myself: "what the fuck did I get myself into?"

If you want your child to grow up into an apathetic, kitchen knife wielding vigilante who kind of hates himself, despite being somehow unable to die; then name him Hectic Knife. And so, the very, very loose plot of our story begins. Hectic Knife spends his days fighting drug dealers on the streets until there is new nemesis in town: Piggly Doctor. We know Piggly Doctor is the bad guy because he likes to tell us “I'M THE BAD GUY.” Well, this bad guy is blowing up children and only Hectic Knife can save the day- even if he doesn’t want to.

The film is obviously a satire of all the super hero films which saturate the market these days. It plays with tropes such as the tortured hero with a dark past. I would still rather watch this completely bonkers Troma movie than majority of super hero films that have come out in the last 5 years. Hectic Knife even makes fun of the trope of  the hero learning his skills via ancient training techniques from exotic gurus. It has some amusing flashback sequences that are full of blood.. However, despite his training, Hectic Knife is no batman, he has that in common with Ben Affleck. 

Peter Litvin as Hectic Knife is the best thing about this film. He delivers his lines with perfect amount of monotone and it is fucking hilarious. It is made even more funny with the bananas script. I don’t now how he kept such a straight face. Deadpan is a tough skill to pull off but in this film they got it right. All his lines were a nice break from the over acting surrounding him- this was hopefully intentional. 

Hectic knife is an extremely meta little film - a lot of the jokes involve not only breaking the 4^th wall but knocking it down and not giving a shit about it. When this self awareness hit the mark it was great, when it did not it was all I could do not to roll my eyes. The main joke running throughout the movie seems to be scenes going on for too long and the characters commenting on it. Problem is the film is saturated with this joke to the point of the humour being drowned out.

Hectic knife is definitely an exploitation flick, so it does belong here on my horror movie blog. It is full of violence, although comical and not the least disturbing. Stabbings happen in this film about as often as you would expect for a film with knife in the title. Never mind that the blood looks suspiciously like barbecue sauce (turns out it literally was). Add the hard boiled eggs and bagels and Hectic Knife can probably also fit into the genre of cooking show.

Out of respect for every other movie I've reviewed on this blog, I cant give hectic knife a great score out of 10. However, Hectic Knife is a good Troma film; It caters to a niche market and it does well for its intended audience. Does Hectic Knife deserve any film making awards along with mainstream, higher budget films? No. Does it deserve to be bought and played at a bad movie night with good friends who love to laugh? Absolutely!

I'm giving it a 2/10, but for a film that is so bad it's good, I mean it as a compliment.

Here's where you can view Hectic Knife:

Blu- Ray : https://www.tromadirect.com/shop/blu-ray/hectic-knife-blu-ray/

https://www.amazon.com/Hectic-Knife-Blu-ray-Peter-Litvin/dp/B078C51DJY

Video On Demand: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B01MG8F2NF/ref=msx_wn_av 

https://troma.vhx.tv/videos/hectic-knife 

The Aussie film that just will not get out of my head (Rabbit, 2017)

Falling down the rabbit hole has never been so mesmerising.

I’m finally getting to write about a film I saw last month. It has been running through my mind ever since I viewed it and has me itching to see it again. Rabbit (2017, directed by Luke Shanahan) is a horror movie but it is also a spellbinding one.

Maude’s twin sister Cleo went missing and she is plagued by dreams of her in danger, possibly being tortured. After collapsing for an unknown reason Maude (Adelaide Clemens) returns home to Australia to find the place in her visions and rescue Cleo. Her search leads her to a caravan park deep in the backwoods. Everyone in the caravan park acts strange and the only trust worthy people seem to be a presentable couple who agree to help Maude find her twin.

The film turns on its head pretty spectacularly, I wouldn’t describe where the film goes as a mere plot twist, rather the effect was akin to that first downward plunge on a rollercoaster. Rabbit is definitely a wild ride. This is a film where going in blind is definitely a good idea so I’m purposely being vague even though I want to dive into how much I loved every aspect of the film.

Rabbit is absolutely beautiful- from the misty Pinetree forest to the ornate and beautiful houses, that being said the beauty of the film is juxtaposed by its utter malevolence. The film is both dreamlike and nightmarish- reflecting its themes (of dreams and twins) perfectly. With it’s strange characters and unexplained situations, along with its themes of child abuse and human experimentation, Rabbit is thoroughly menacing but could I look away for one second? Absolutely not- Rabbit is utterly entrancing

It’s hard to pick one thing the film does particularly well as it gets so many elements of filmmaking right, but the use of sound in this film is a big winner.
Rabbit is a strong example of how right it can go when film makers experiment within the realms of creativity. Aggressive, operatic scores are used throughout and are harsh on the senses, these jarring uses of sound reminding me of an Aregento film. Also, thirteen-year-old me resurfaced and cheered at the eerie Rammstein cover which totally took me by surprise but it was awesome, I had a huge nostalgic grin on my face despite the scene not being funny.

For me, Rabbit had a lot of similarities to other genre films. The crazy plot reminded me of films by Yorgos Lanthimos especially The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and Dogtooth (2009), while the use of children and experiments brought back scenes from French film Evolution (2015, directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic). Although nowhere near as violent Rabbit also can also be compared to horror classic Martyrs (2008, directed by Pascal Laugier) and brings up similar images to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (2007). After all these comparisons it is clear to me that Rabbit rejects anything Hollywood or mainstream- looks like Australia can dish out the obscure and frightening as much as Europe can.

It’s something completely unique and I know it will capture the minds of anyone who sees it. People will be talking about it from the time they see it at least, I know I will be. I’m interested to see what else this director can pull out of his hat.

I’m giving rabbit a 9.5/10