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DYING BREED
(2007)
DIRECTOR:
Jody Dwyer
STARRING:
Leigh Wannel, Mirrah Foulkes, Nathan Phillips, Melanie Vallejo.
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Holy shit man, Tasmania is a cool fucking place. Especially if it’s full of all the majestic forests, creepy towns, cannibalistic denture wearing inbred country folk and delicious human flesh pies that all make the fucking scary film that is Dying Breed.
I was surprised by this little Australian gem. Dying Breed is directed by Jody Dwyer, who as far as I’m concerned is as green as… well not MY front lawn… but as green as I’m sure the front lawn of an avid gardener’s home is. But she has done a fantastic job, visually and with the direction of her cast. Fantastic camera work, acting, locations, scares and gore, this is one hell of a movie sure to impress any horror fan. It takes itself seriously in that it never plays it up for fun or laughs, even though the youthful characters do have a laugh with each other (amongst the bickering). Our four main protagonists of the film consist of two men and their female partners (naturally). Starring as the “virginal” more sensible couple (and isn’t their always one) we have Leigh Wannel (yes, SAW Leigh Wannel – although I prefer to link his name to Dead Silence) and Mirrah Foulkes, both extremely competent actors for their years. But who really steals the show is Nathan Phillips, playing your usual ADD driven asshole character who can’t take no for an answer and then is most usually relied on as the psycho tough guy when the shit hits the fan. Constantly annoying, yet always fun, this is the character I enjoyed the most.
Now before any of you fucks start bitching about a lack of originality. “Oh, inbred cannibals… how ORIGINAL! WAH!”, I just want to ask – who the fuck ever said originality was everything in a movie? You know what, Dracula 3000 was original, it was dracula in space, but it’s a total piece of shit (anybody who denies that has NOT seen it), so fuck you. Dying Breed does achieve a new take on the inbred story though. It’s in Tasmania! It takes what Wrong Turn, for instance, offers but gives it that creepy Australian outback type feel, amongst some other original Australian culture twists thrown in, meat pies anyone? But enough of the introduction, let’s get into the story.
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Explained with a historical flashback, in the times of the early settlers in Australia, is that the settlers of Australia (oh how proud we may be of them) were in fact mostly convicts and some of them even Irish (smacks jaw). A couple of feral cannibal convicts got on the loose in Tasmania, ran for it and were never to be found within the vast and dense forests.
Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) is Irish and has a big ass pot of gold chip on her shoulder; she just refuses to believe the Tasmanian Tiger is extinct. Her sister, Ruth (Sally McDonald), HAD this same chip on her shoulder, so she went in search of the beast. Oh and then she died. It’s believed she drowned and after 8 years Nina is still a little upset about it. So naturally the best way to get over her sorrows is to go to the EXACT SAME place to find the tiger herself. Helping Nina is her sensitive new age guy partner, Matt (Leigh Wannel). He has also enlisted the help of his good mate and official asshole, Jack (Nathan Phillips) and his partner, Rebecca (Melanie Vallejo). Jack is well aware Nina may have some issues during the travels due to the minor dead sister issue, but he insists on still being a jerk. Hey what are friends for!? |
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^^ Beautiful yet isolated and creepy Australian landscapes. |
After a short drive in their 4-wheel drive towing a boat they cross a creepy little ferry (which I would personally never set foot on) and arrive at their destination which appears to be a 3 tin shed town. Before I could whistle the Deliverance tune, Jack himself hums it upon entering the pub, full of all its wondrously charismatic locals. After much awkward creepiness from the locals and a general feeling of uneasiness our gang is off to sleep.
The next day they set off on their trek to find evidence of the existence of the Tasmanian Tiger. After a days hike they set up camp inside a cave. At night Nina and Matt think they’ve spotted the legendary tiger in the bush, with Jack and Rebecca’s help they have a quick search in the dark. Upon meeting back at the cave, they all become quite aware that Rebecca is not there and most probably fucked. But I know something they don’t know, she’s been eaten! hehehehe Jack sets out with his crossbow and naturally he splits off from the group to find his woman.
Nina and Matt end up being found by two of the locals from the pub and one of the locals takes the couple to a mineshaft tunnel where it’s suspected Rebecca may have fallen. During this trek the local decides to break it to Nina, in a most unsubtle way, that a creepy little girl living back at the “town” is indeed Nina’s sister’s daughter (obviously from forced conception) and all this obviously happened before her sister drowned. Still deciding to trust him (what the fuck else are they going to do in a dense foreign forest) they follow him to the mine shaft and search for Rebecca.
On the other side of this mine shaft they find Jack who has caught the other local who found Nina & Matt by cross bowing his mouth to a tree. They find a shack which has Jack’s once uneaten girlfriend hanging from a tree outback, missing a limb or two and having seen better (alive) days. Jack goes apeshit and in his brunt anger steps onto a bear trap falling down and hitting his head onto… ANOTHER BEAR TRAP! W00h00, that’s awesome! Anyway, he’s dead now. Matt goes off to the distance to try to start a jeep and naturally leaves Nina to her own devices. She is cornered by two of the locals who are now obviously known to Nina as people she probably shouldn’t trust again. She manages to escape and once again gets trapped, on a bridge, where it is revealed by the locals that she is just as good a baby making machine as her sister WAS. Wait a minute… her sister must have jumped off this bridge when put into the same situation (smacks jaw)! Nevertheless she falls, Matt observes it all and she is believed to be dead. Matt didn’t quite catch the killers though, by the time he makes it up to the bridge he sees the wrong person who he THINKS killed her and THAT person commits suicide right there and then anyway (out of shame okay – I promise it’ll make sense in the film hehe). So there we have it, Matt thinks, killer dead, woman dead, friends dead… I’m fucking OUT OF HERE!
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On the other side of this mine shaft they find Jack who has caught the other local who found Nina & Matt by cross bowing his mouth to a tree. They find a shack which has Jack’s once uneaten girlfriend hanging from a tree outback, missing a limb or two and having seen better (alive) days. Jack goes apeshit and in his brunt anger steps onto a bear trap falling down and hitting his head onto… ANOTHER BEAR TRAP! W00h00, that’s awesome! Anyway, he’s dead now. Matt goes off to the distance to try to start a jeep and naturally leaves Nina to her own devices. She is cornered by two of the locals who are now obviously known to Nina as people she probably shouldn’t trust again. She manages to escape and once again gets trapped, on a bridge, where it is revealed by the locals that she is just as good a baby making machine as her sister WAS. Wait a minute… her sister must have jumped off this bridge when put into the same situation (smacks jaw)! Nevertheless she falls, Matt observes it all and she is believed to be dead. Matt didn’t quite catch the killers though, by the time he makes it up to the bridge he sees the wrong person who he THINKS killed her and THAT person commits suicide right there and then anyway (out of shame okay – I promise it’ll make sense in the film hehe). So there we have it, Matt thinks, killer dead, woman dead, friends dead… I’m fucking OUT OF HERE!
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Tasmania has some BRUTAL dentists! ^^
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At this point we have our typical boys in blue, the cops all in the town taking statements, etc. By now as the viewer we are well aware Matt is surrounded by the very people who are perpetrating these crimes. But he doesn’t know and neither do the police, who are way too concerned on how damn tasty the homemade pies coming out the pub are. Anyway, Matt drinks down hot tea that was given to him by the townsfolk (gulp) and he heads to the car to drive home. Suddenly he starts suffering paralysis and is then ripped out of the vehicle. I refuse to go on about anymore of the story from that point, as I think it’s an extremely brutal ending without even being violent. I wouldn’t want to give any of it away.
Dying Breed is a DYING BREED (hehe I’m clever) as it doesn’t go out of it’s way to be entirely smart but still delivers enough thrills and blood to satisfy a humble horror fan. No it’s not original, no it’s not brilliant, no it’s not SAW. But it’s fucking creepy, it’s brutally violent and it’s completely offensive. I wish I could see so many people’s reactions to a brutal scene which involves puppies having their heads smashed in with a hammer one at a time. It makes me proud to see such a fine horror film come out of Australia and for it to actually have a cinematic release. I don’t dislike Wolf Creek but I do believe it was a little overrated and not nearly as frightening as it was made out to be. John Jarratt just can’t frighten me, he just comes across as such a bumbling moron. But Dying Breed is the real thing and on top of that it’s taken a different approach to rural Australia with the Tasmanian landscapes and thick forests. It’s a big old breath of fresh air and I honestly have no real complaints.
Alas, this IS a review and I must find some complaints. So I’ll pick on TWO things with the first being the typical horror clichés. You know the ones I’m talking about. Leaving the girl alone while trying to grab a car in the distance that we all know won’t start. Not grabbing the weapon off a dead mate when shit goes down. Going off to explore strange noises in dark & impossible conditions. Trusting people who LOOK LIKE THEY WANT TO EAT YOU! But hey, what the fuck, it’s a HORROR movie!
Secondly, the film was dark. Too dark. It’s like whoever was in charge of lighting read the book “HOW TO CORRECTLY SET UP LIGHTING FOR FILM PRODUCTION – BY THE MAKERS OF AVP2” (hehehe). At times there was an occasional squint which got annoying but I guess we are watching a film that spends a large portion of time at night in the forest. I’d prefer an occasional squint than a spot light in the dark forest Evil Dead 1 effort.
Brutal, tense, gritty and horrific – this should set a standard. It’s Deliverance meets Crocodile Dundee and I fucking love it. Bring on more Australian horror!
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With a fridge full of pies, I give this movie: |
4 OUT OF 5 JAGER-BABIES. |
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