Tag: Tasmania

WE BURY THE DEAD – Review

For one of the first big new film releases of 2026, we turn to a “tried and true” horror “sub-genre”, the “zombie flick” (or “walking dead” if you’re more “refined” in your terror tastes). Sure, these grungy ghouls began their cinematic lumbering more than 90 years ago (WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE are examples respectively from the 30s and 40s), but the current iteration probably begins with George Romero’s landmark NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1968. But in more recent years we’ve gotten some “mixed movies” such as the comedies (ZOMBIELAND (2 of them), THE DEAD DON’T DIE, and SHAUN OF THE DEAD), and even a romance (WARM HEART). Much in that (jugular) vein, this new one from “down under” could be considered a “relationship drama” as it focuses on a woman (and her partner) who could declare on a resume that WE BURY THE DEAD.

The first person we meet in the film is Ava (Daisy Ridley), a young wife from the states who’s on a bus in Tasmania with dozens of very anxious people. These passengers are “twitchy” because they’re citizen volunteers in the “body retrieval units” after the US (we’re the “baddies” again) accidentally launched an experimental device that sends out a pulse that terminates neural functions, killing over a half a million on the island. Ava’s group is escorted by the military forces in the “zones” after they’re told that some struck by the “event” may be springing back to life. If they encounter a person whose brain is somehow “back online”, they are to send up a flare and soldiers will take care of them “humanely”. It’s revealed that Ava’s motives go beyond charity, as her husband had attended a business conference there. She wants to head south to his resort to see if he survived, but the military has forbidden travel past Hobart due to massive fires. Ava must wait for her “moment” while being teamed with a snarky “free spirit” named Clay (Brenton Thwaites), who unwittingly provides an “opportunity” via is theft of a motorcycle. The duo sneak away from the troops to travel the off-highway back roads in a quest for Ava’s hubby Mitch (Matt Whelan). But will a chance encounter with a grief-stricken soldier, Riley (Mark Coles Smith) abruptly end the journey of Clay and Ava. And what about the “re-animated” and aggressive survivors along the way?


After her initial splash in the final “episodes” of the STAR WARS saga, it’s great to see that Ms. Ridley is getting to flex her considerable dramatic skills as the haunted Ava, who will take any risk or suffer any humiliation to reunite with her spouse. But then she conveys that “shift” in this seeker, as the rose-hued “tint” in her memories of marriage slowly chip away. We see this is not only a rescue of Mitch, but perhaps a relationship rescue. Ridley also has a deft physicality, whether evading the “onliners”, or darting eyes in order to find the best “action option”, making Ava a unique thriller heroine. And somehow Ava does work well with Thwaites as the more laid-back Clay, a fellow who has forsaken the altruism of this new “temp gig” in order to indulge his hedonistic appetites. This dude has serious swagger, as he readily agrees Ava’s plans, with Thwaites saying, “Why the Hell not?” with a whip of his long dark locks. Much more “tightly-wound” is Smith as the emotionally traumatized Riley, whose haunted backstory prompts him to go against his training and his moral compass. In the aforementioned flashbacks, Whelan is quite effective as Mitch is transformed from an adorably-smitten groom to something darker and wounded by life.

This tale is written and directed by screen vet Zak Hilditch. He has a confident visual flair, filling the screen with expansive island vistas, while not neglecting the focus on the desperate characters. Though the “body retrievals” are mainly done in the blazing sunlight, he gives each domicile a touch of rotting decay, with horrific menace lurking just inside the nurseries. Unfortunately, aside from the “marriage subplot” there’s little here that fans of the genre haven’t seen before, in much better thrillers. The main problem here, perhaps, is the lack of thrills. The “undead onliners” only make a handful of attacks, with wildly different results (it’s explained that the longer they’ve been ‘activated”, the more agitated they act). That may account for the rather sluggish pacing, making this feel longer than its 94-minute runtime. Yes, the “ghouls” are unsettling due to a twist on standard “zombs” in their dentistry (their “teeth grinding” is pretty creepy as we hear molars scraping as they lurch forward). But then we’re back trudging through the often lovely countryside. Plus, the “twist” ending loses much of its impact after a big reveal in last year’s superior 28 YEARS LATER (maybe Ralph Finnse could have provided a needed jolt of energy). Fans of fear flicks will want more shocks than marital conflict, while drama fans will be turned off by the dollops (not deluges) of gore in the well-intentioned WE BURY THE DEAD.

2 out of 4

WE BURY THE DEAD opens in select theatres on January 1, 2026

THE HUNTER ( 2011 ) – The Review

Sometimes the film going experience is greatly enhanced when you have little knowledge of the movie upon entering the theatre. Such was the case for the new film THE HUNTER. All I had seen was the poster which showed a grim, determined Willem Dafoe toting a high-powered rifle. Since he’s frequently been cast in villain roles ( he’s the Green Goblin for gosh sakes! ), I thought that perhaps he’s playing an assassin or hitman tracking his victim through the countryside. On the flip side, he may be a bounty hunter or lawman trying to bring in a fugitive from justice. Whichever it was, I was all set for a cat-and-mouse action thriller.

For the first few minutes it looks like we’re in for a classy hitman actioner ( like THE MECHANIC ). After we’re introduced to Martin David ( Dafoe ) soaking in the tub, listening to classical music in a swanky Paris hotel, the film cuts to the airport where he meets with a couple of well-dressed gentlemen. They discuss the transfer of currency to foreign bank accounts. Hmmmm, who’s the target? Martin is given a briefcase with small test tubes and lab sample plates. Uh? The wealthy employer has hired him, not to track down an enemy, but to find an animal thought to be extinct : the Tasmanian tiger. The tiger doesn’t need to be captured alive, the employer only wants blood, skin, and fur samples ( perhaps for cloning purposes? ). So Martin is literally a professional hunter. Arriving in Tasmania, he is greeted by another agent of his employer, Jack ( Sam Neill ), who helps guide Martin to the forested spot were the tiger was supposedly last sighted. Jack also has arranged a place for Martin to stay : the home of Lucy Armstrong ( Frances O’Connor ) and her two precocious, foul-mouthed, grade-school aged kids. Seems Mr. Armstrong disappeared in the forest while searching for the tiger. She’s literally checked out, spending her days heavily medicated drifting in and out of slumber and letting her kids fend for themselves. After tidying up his living quarters, Martin begins his task. The people of the town are leery of him. The loggers, who’ve been prevented from working, believe that he’s an undercover Greenpeace-type agent. But the other side distrusts him too. The local tree-hugging eco-warriors believe that he’s using traps to capture the tiger. No one seems to believe his cover story of being a research scientist collecting data for a new book. Can he stay several steps ahead of these warring factions and locate his elusive prey?

THE HUNTER is a great showcase for the talents of one of our most interesting actors. Here Dafoe gets to go beyond the sometimes one-note baddies in Hollywood blockbusters He begins the film as a cool professional who’s only looking to complete his job and collect his fee. But things change once he arrives in that wild land and meets this broken family. Martin starts to care about something beyond his mission, although Dafoe is terrific in the scenes showcasing his tracking and trapping skills. O’Connor is touching as the absentee single mother who finally wakes up and responds to the unusual foreign man in her life. O’Neill offers great support as her family friend who may have other motives. The search for a rare animal is a unique motive for all the principals ( it’s interesting that this weekend’s big family film THE PIRATES : BAND OF MISFITS also tackles the subject of beasties thought to be extinct ). The suspense builds slowly while not taking away from the unfolding relationship story. The cinematography of this still untamed country is breathtaking at times. Some of the accents are often too thick to decipher, but your ears should become accustomed quickly. Because of the gorgeous unexplored countryside, and the very talented cast, THE HUNTER is a film worth tracking down.

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars Out of 5

 

 

After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘Dying Breed’

Tom:

Lionsgate’s HORRORFEST: 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR festival is back for it’s third year this week at Ronnie’s Cinema. I’m old enough to remember when “direct-to-video† was not an option for low-budget horror films, when films like these would haunt drive-ins and run-down city theatres. Most of these 8 films at this year’s Horrorfest would otherwise never play a single date theatrically, so Lionsgate should be commended for assembling this mini festival. I just wish they did a better job of promoting these as this year’s attendance, like last year and the year before, was sparse. Judging by the three films I’ve seen so far, they’ve done a good job of choosing films of variety and, mostly, quality.

For me anyway, this year’s HORRORFEST started off well with the 2008 shocker DYING BREED, a scary Australian take on a familiar horror genre that anyone who enjoys films like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or WRONG TURN will want to seek out. The premise and exotic location may remind viewers of the recent WOLF CREEK (it even has that film’s star Nathan Phillips), but DYING BREED is a much rougher ride.

Zoologist Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) and her three attractive, adventurous friends Matt, Jack, and Rebecca (Leigh Wannell, Nathan Phillips, and   Melanie Vallejo) venture into an Australian island jungle. Ostensibly the plan is to prove the existence of a rare Tasmanian tiger, but really Nina is trying to solve the mystery of her sister’s death there eight years earlier. After a disturbing visit at a grungy hostile Tavern/Motel, the group soon finds themselves in the wilds, hunted by cannibalistic descendants of local legend “The Pieman† aka Alexander Pierce (a real 19th century figure, there’s even a Pieman River in Northwest Tasmania).

There’s nothing terribly original or complex about DYING BREED. The sense of dread and foreboding in the build-up is familiar and heavy-handed, including lots of subjective “someone’s watching† overhead shots. The tiger subplot is disappointingly   abandoned early ( I kept bracing myself for a tiger attack that never happened). The pre-slaughter banter is shallow and the four young leads are the usual sketchy mix. Jack, the trouble-making hothead, and his sexy and passive girlfriend Rebecca are obviously doomed early on. These are criticisms that could apply to most horror films though, as DYING BREED is mostly an exercise in mood and scares, and that’s where the film succeeds. The horrific set-pieces involving hunting knives, crossbows, bear traps, and false teeth are intense and often genuinely terrifying. There are some surprises. Heroes Nina and Matt attempt to   turn the tables on their pursuers in the expected way, but don’t exactly succeed.   The ultimate fate of Nina’s sister (shown in flashback) is quite disturbing and the film has a realistic downbeat climax that stays with the viewer.   The gore quotient is high enough to appeal to Fangoria readers without lingering or going over the top. When the primary Pieman kller is finally revealed, he is truly a frightening villain (and I wonder why this movie wasn’t given the more obviously commercial title PIEMAN). First-time   feature director Jody Dwyer, while not reinventing the wheel here,   has an obvious knack for this type of material.   Dwyer has made, with DYING BREED, a slick, scary, unpretentious horror film can stand on it’s own merits and the organizers of Horrorfest were wise to include it in this year’s line-up.

Travis:

I would really love to see more genre films from Australia get theatrical screen time here in the States, but it seems it falls into the same black hole of American theatrical distribution of the many other foreign film markets that repeatedly produce quality movie. What amazes me however, is that Australian films are, for the most part, in English and not subtitled, leading me to wonder why we don’t see more of them here. ‘Dying Breed’ is yet another example of a decent genre film from Australia that’s going to likely get lost in the midst of endless direct-to-DVD horror films, relegated to online forum banter between the most devoted of horror movie geeks. [I further emphasize this with the 2006 black comedy/horror movie ‘Black Sheep’ released here on DVD by Dimension Extremes. Actually, it’s a New Zealand film, but still…]

‘Dying Breed’ is written and directed by Jody Dwyer and stars writer-actor Leigh Whannell (Saw I, II, III). The film begins with an opening sequence that sucks you into the historical back-story and influence for the movie’s modern tale of terror. Upon exiting the opening sequence, we are thrust into modern day as a young couple fly into Australia for a trip to Tasmania. Matt (Whannell) and Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) meet up with Matt’s macho-testosterone friend Jack and his girlfriend Rebecca. The purpose of the trip is for Nina to search for and hopefully document the Tasmanian Tiger, which she believes is not extinct. Nina’s true mission is to complete this research that her sister began before she mysteriously died eight years prior to this trip. It’s a round-about way for Nina to bring some kind of closure to her grief.

Jack and Rebecca are very stereotypical characters and it’s no surprise that they become little more than “axe” fodder for your traditional horror movie plot development. While the first half of ‘Dying Breed’ can move a bit slow at times, it still manages to maintain it’s appeal and slowly leads you into the heart of the story’s darkness. About halfway through the film, the story’s twist begins to reveal itself resulting in a diminished “shock” impact. Despite this, we are still rewarded with some disturbing details and some grotesquely gruesome scenes to test the strength of our stomachs.

The story pulls from two legendary Australian footnotes of history, combining them to create an under-stated hybrid that doesn’t needlessly over-blend the two separate ingredients. No, there’s now half-man/half-beast, no shape-shifting or supernatural beings. Instead, the film takes the idea of the Tasmanian Tiger’s disputed status of extinction and uses it as a plot device and to some extent, is used to create the classic Hitchcock McGuffin effect to draw the audience into a direction other than where you’ll ultimately end up. This is combined with an Australian origin story that lives on with urban legend notoriety, which has Alexander Pearce (aka The Pieman) being the only prisoner to have ever escaped the British island penal colony of the 1800’s, now known as Tasmania.

‘Dying Breed’ touches on multiple sub-genres within the genre of slasher/horror films, features a handful of Australian/Irish accents that add a cool element to watching this film and has realistic and effective special effects to make the gore convincing enough to create discomfort. Above all else, I felt the “true” ending of the movie is beyond icing on the cake and reaches the status of the cherry on top. The little girl named Julia (Bianca Cutrona) is the subject of a twist that revels itself simply and briefly but effectively in the final moment of the movie, creating that wonderful lingering aftertaste of freakishness that makes good horror movies good. I attended the 5:30pm screening on Friday, January 9. The next screening will be at Wehrenberg’s Ronnies 20 Cinema at 5:30pm on Monday, January 12.

[Overall: 3.75 stars out of 5]