Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Kiah Roache-Turner, 2015

IMDB

3/5

Any fan of zombie cinema probably has some degree of fatigue at this point. Oh, another movie about a zombie outbreak where everyone has to fight them off to survive. And it's turned into an inescapable theme. They are everywhere. Zombies have crept out of the cult-category and are now ubiquitous. They aren't underground, they are in the mainstream. The Walking Dead is the highest rated series on cable. World War Z brought Max Brooks zombie novel out of the literary world and into big budget Hollywood. So this means there are books, television series, small budget films, big budget films. Half of the Halloween outfits you see this year will probably be zombie related.

So at this point, for the most part, we aren't likely to see anything revolutionary or groundbreaking in the genre. With an over-saturation present, filmmakers should be more focused on aiming to create something that has some stylistic integrity, something individually artistic.

Wyrmwood, the most pirated Australian film in recent history, does just this. It's a self-aware zombie film with a rather simple premise. A rapidly spreading virus has hit the Outback infecting basically everyone that comes into contact with it unless they have a specific blood-type. Nothing new, right? But it's the execution of this basic premise that makes Wyrmwood a rather engaging zombie film. 

Equipped with a terrific makeup and special effects team, Wyrmwood is able to create a 90 minute zombie picture that doesn't get slowed down with unnecessary character development. It's intention is not to create depth but more sudden shifts and frantic pacing. The disease itself is relentless and unforgiving, spreading to friends and family with unhampered force. Unlikely friendships are forged quickly because the only choice you have is to team up with any living soul in close proximity to you. Not really much time to build trust by feeling someone out. It's another zombie film where life has become cheap very quickly, and the key to survival is not hesitating and being as resourceful as you can in whatever situation you find yourself in. 

These Final Hours

Zak Hilditch, 2015

IMDB

3/5

Having an apocalyptic film set in the land down under feels immediately different. Dealing with the already rough and rugged country that is the continent of Australia, then letting all hell loose adds a different dynamic to the typical sense of sheer panic that we see in the American apocalyptic genre.

Bad guy but deep down good guy James (Nathan Phillips)  rescues young girl Rose (Angourie Rice) from a couple of psychopaths who have taken her prisoner. This is all while guys are running around with axes killing people, while others are looting and others are hiding out in the darkness. Complete insanity. The clock is ticking, where in a short period of time the world will presumably be over. Early on the specifics of the impeding doom are vague, but the inevitable is pieced together for you over the course of the film.

Final Hours is really a story about human morality, what's important in the final hours of your life. Is it about spending the final few hours with the people who want you there? Is it about spending the final hours with the woman you love? Or is it about doing the right thing, what's right in the eyes of universal judgement. Of course all of this depends on what you believe might happen after you die. James doesn't necessarily seem to believe that there is any kind of afterlife, let alone a heaven that is going to open it's doors for him because he has saved a young girl's life. In fact, the world that is about to burn seems like a world quite absent of spiritual divinity. When James arrives at Freddy's countdown party, it's a modern day Sodom and Gommorah showcase of sinful behavior. Sex, drugs, death. Watching that scene triggers an inner philosophical dialogue too. Is what they are doing really that wrong? They are attempting to enjoy the final moments of their lives.

This film gets you thinking, in a moral sense sort of like how Deep Impact made you think. What would you do? How would you react? Nobody really knows. You don't really know until it happens, and you see what your circumstances are. These Final Hours are really a single man's circumstances laid out before him.

The Babadook

Jennifer Kent, 2014

IMDB

2/5

Australian-horror film / Sundance darling The Babadook got the marketing hype-treatment when it first landed in theaters on it's wide-release. Commercials aired showing audiences in night vision screaming, and holding their hands over their eyes. As time went on you would hear people saying things like "it's the scariest movie I've ever seen. Scarier than [insert popular scary movie here]". The problem is that scary is subjective. One element that may scare one person may seem completely silly to the next person.

The first act of The Babadook is mother Amelia (Essie Davis) attempting to control her erratic child Samuel (Noah Wiseman). He gets suspended from school for bringing in a home-made weapon, not the first time. He screams in the car at the top of his lungs. Amelia's sister even wants to keep her distance from the two of them because Samuel is so unpredictable. You actually start to really resent the Samuel character. And you feel total sympathy for Amelia, visibly exhausted from trying to get through her day to day life with the little boy. Oh yeah, and Samuel's father? He died tragically. So Amelia has had her fair share of bad luck.

When Amelia tries to calm Sam to bed one night with a pop-up book The Babadook, things go terribly wrong when the content of the book is basically just threats of a scary guy coming into your room and eating your insides. There are even little tabs that Amelia pulls where knives pop out and blood shoots from the little people's heads. Not exactly soothing bedtime material.

The first half hour to forty minutes of the Babadook are actually pretty scary. Kent skillfully builds things up. When the ghost or monster, or whatever you actually want to call him shows up, it's one of those edge-of-your-seat moments. But then the film really takes a turn. It ultimately morphs into a possession piece instead of a haunted house or haunted book piece that it started out on. This isn't all that bad, but it just gets a bit indulgent. The whole sleep deprivation, withdrawal from social circles mental breakdown period feels long.

To the films credit, it does cleverly shift your opinion of the characters from good to evil and vice versa. But it just doesn't live up to the hype. There is a lesson to be learned, probably already learned by most people who are hard to please when it comes to the horror genre. If there is a huge marketing campaign where you are hearing things like it's the scariest movie I've ever seen, most likely it won't be. The best parts of the movie are when the creators are doing less with more. The unfortunate thing is that's only in the first third of the film.

Rabbit Proof Fence

Phillip Noyce, 2002

Can I Stream It?

2/5

Set in 1931, Three Aborigine girls are taken from their family in an effort to slowly eradicate Australia of its indigenous population. 

Rabbit Proof has some really great qualities, but is ultimately a film that is lacking to a certain degree. The acting and cinematography really stand out, with the young girls showing durability and endurance while encompassed by superior camera work. The barren Australian Outback really invokes a sense of vast despair for the girls as they try to make their way back home. At times the heat radiates from the surface of the dry earth, reinforcing the unforgiving conditions the poor girls must endure. Sometimes the camera is attempting to focus on the silhouettes of the girls as they appear to almost float above the white surface. The actual fence they follow serves as a symbol in a sense, the descendants of British colonists trying so desperately to efface any anterior heritage. Their eagerness to "breed out" the half-castes is similar to that of the Nazi's Final Solution. But with that being said, the film is guilty of dragging when it comes to the story. Wearisome, sometimes almost feeling like homework. It is by no means an un-watchable film, but it certainly is an overrated one based on the wide critical acclaim it receives. The book likely gives the story much better treatment and probably makes more of an impact. That's what is ultimately lacking in Rabbit Proof. The story itself never seems to create a gripping, emotional impression. At the end of the day, the film at least takes you into a chapter of world history not often explored, it's just a shame it lightly glides through it without leaving you with any deep-seated memories.