Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

THE WIND / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: EMMI TAMMI / SCREENPLAY: TERESA SUTHERLAND / STARRING: CAITLIN GERARD, JULIA GOLDANI TELLES, ASHLEY ZUKERMAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In a startlingly bold directorial debut, Emma Tammi takes a traditional tale of folk in the late 1800s Western frontier and turns their isolation into something more untamed than the just the landscape, resulting in writer Teresa Sutherland’s curious hybrid of Meek’s Cutoff, The VVitch and The Babadook. And while not as successful as any of those films, it’s a damn good effort.

Caitlin Gerard stars as Lizzy, a woman living in the middle of nowhere with her husband, surrounded by the graves of those who tried to make prairie living work but failed. Alone for days on end, Lizzy believes that there’s something otherworldly out there in the wind, something that visits her in a variety of guises. Or is it just in her lonely, bored unfulfilled mind? When a young couple move in next door (some distance away, doubling the population for miles around), dynamics change, sympathies shift and our ability to tell what’s real and what isn’t puts us right in LIzzy’s head…

Written, photographed, directed by (and mainly about) women, what makes The Wind a breath of fresh air is the perspective on that old horror standard, “the hysterical female.” For the most part, Lizzy, beautifully played by Caitlin Gerard, is a character who keeps us guessing, providing us with a complex mixture of sympathy, curiosity and doubt. We’re just not sure if we believe her or not, but the film manages to avoid the kind of cliches such a character can all too often fall into, and her journey is as unsettling to us as it is to her. Both the character and the portrayal of her are impressively strong.

The film’s other great strength is Tammi’s powerful, visually striking, impressively composed direction. The film is gorgeous, belying what one suspects to be small budget, conjuring beauty, menace, awe and dread within her perfectly formed framing, aided beautifully by superb cinematography from Lyn Moncrief.

The pace so beautifully set up in the first acts, where the past and present intertwine to reveal what’s going on, falters a little when the big scares show up (and there are some superb ones), but horror audiences need some kind of payoff so you can forgive the filmmakers that.

Ultimately though, this confident debut is well worth seeing, its ambiguities making it even more intriguing to see what Tammi, Sutherland and Moncrief come up with next. Let’s hope it isn’t a long wait, because one gets the feeling that if this had been the debut of a man, his new film would have already been rolling. Tammi is a talent we all deserve to see more of.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON / CERT: UNRATED / DIRECTOR: D. J. WEBSTER / SCREENPLAY: CAREY HAYES, CHAD HAYES / STARRING: ROBERT SAMPSON, WILL BLEDSOE, JOE TURKEL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Alien has a run in with the Exorcist in this low-budget cheese-fest from 1990 that pits a crew of hapless satellite engineers against the devil himself. Yes, that’s right, in space nobody can hear you scream: the power of Christ compels you! As the diminishing space truckers discover what really happened to the original crew of a long lost space shuttle, they begin to question not just each other but their own sanity as each of them falls prey to the devil’s evil manipulation to bloody tentacled ends.

There are some intriguing ideas here (thanks to the Hayes Brothers’ script), but they’re ones that really required a much larger budget or, at the very least, some cinematic finesse which sadly director D. J. Webster wasn’t able to provide. As a fun schlocky memory from the days of straight-to-video this is an enjoyable romp into sci-fi horror. Event Horizon, it is not.

As with many genre movies of its time, this has become somewhat of a cult classic and, as a result, there are plenty of features to embellish the crisp new 4K transfer. Commentary with the Exec Producers is enlightening and highlights the many trials and tribulations that low-budget features face, while a series of Skype interviews with actor Alan Blumenfeld, FX maestro R. Christopher Biggs and stunt man Chuck Borden are actually quite brilliant and provide way more interesting information than a standard press-kit interview would reveal. All of which provide that rare effect where you’ll find yourself wanting to re-watch the film again. Trailers, Photo Gallery and the Budget Breakdown (yes, really) round off a really nice selection.

GOODBYE PARADISE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CARL SCHULTZ / SCREENPLAY: BOB ELLIS, DENNY LAWRENCE / CAST: RAY BARRETT, PAUL CHUBB, GUY DOLEMAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (AUS)

Bursting with 80s Antipodean swagger, Goodbye Paradise is an unusual mixture of thriller, travelogue, political drama and autobiographical musings which pivots on the mid-life crisis of disgraced former deputy police commissioner and lapsed ex-alcoholic, Mike Stacy. The DVD sleeve labels it as an “Ozploitation classic,” but it’s a classier affair than that.

Down on his luck and shunned by his former colleagues, Stacy hopes to find redemption (and a new income) by writing an exposé of corruption in the force. But his plans are soon derailed by the authorities and, instead, he’s hired by Labor Senator McCredie to try to find his missing eighteen year old daughter, Kathy. It’s a premise that sends Stacy off on a frequently bizarre series of encounters which unfold across the city’s dark underbelly and inside the weirder outposts of its counterculture.

The storytelling that follows is what might be called “free-form,” with everything held together by a bravura performance by Ray Barrett in the central role. Barrett brings out the pathos, resilience and self-deprecating wit of his deeply flawed character. In clumsier hands, Stacy could simply be an irksome, self-destructive drunk, but Barrett manages to make him a likeable anti-hero.

Some strands of the script are designed to illuminate the story’s political parables (including a caustic critique of Australian Labor party politics), while others are designed to let the viewer spend time hanging out with quirky characters on the fringes of Australian society. All of this is mixed in with efforts to drive forward the film’s more traditional gumshoe tropes, as Stacy tracks down his quarry.

There’s too much going on here and, while Schultz is an accommodating director, he’s trying to bring too many elements to the screen which means there’s little chance for a consistent tone or focus. An explosive finale and a lot of last-minute exposition try to wrap things up with a flourish, but the piece doesn’t quite gel.

A strong 80s vibe infuses the way the film is framed and shot (Space Invaders and disco were clearly still cutting-edge culture Down Under in the early 1980s), and there are some great period fashions and oddball environs to enjoy.

There’s a deep sense of cynicism towards authority and those who exercise power running through every frame of this film. Political ambition is seen to be a cover for ruthless greed and megalomania. The barstool wisdom provided by Stacy’s world-weary narration shows him bemoaning the erosion of innocence and decency and the cruel privations of ageing: “paradise is youth,” Stacy laments.

The film is a picture of a society struggling with transition: the comforting certainties of the old 50s world that Stacy knew are fast disappearing, while the shape of the emerging future promised by the 1980s remains unclear. It all makes for a melancholic but not disagreeable watch. Barrett’s brilliant performance lifts the movie and there’s fun in seeing the filmic rhythms of noir transposed to the sunlit beaches of the Gold Coast.

Special features are limited to a thirty minute talking head retrospective with director Schultz.

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PETER STRICKLAND / STARRING: GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE, SIDSE BABETT KNUDSEN, MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Peter Strickland has made a name for himself crafting genre-tinged Euro oddities. His latest film, In Fabric, toys with Italian Giallo, British supernatural, and Euro Gothic in general. Only his fourth feature, Strickland shows no signs of deviating from a staunchly unique, sensual, style of filmmaking.

Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a recently divorced mother of one, working at a bank. It’s sale season and, after finding herself in a local high-fashion boutique, she purchases a stunning red dress from the mysterious vendor (Fatma Mohamed – The Duke of Burgundy). A dress with a dark past which seems to attract dangerous activity.

As with The Duke of Burgundy and Berberian Sound Studio, Strickland is creating genre films not made to satisfy typical horror audiences. The latter was an ode to Giallo films and psychological thrillers, while the former nodded to the more niche (yes there are things more niche than Giallo) sub-genre of Euro Erotica. In Fabric fuses capitalist critique with ghosts and witches for an intense but well-humoured tale of terror.

Strickland writes films which are momentarily intense but also potentially light, even funny. There’s a thin seam between the humorous and the intense, which In Fabric juggles with finesse. Insinuation is Strickland’s smoking gun, one he uses often to let the audience bathe in their own bewilderment and sometime-horror. You could almost call it Lynchian.

At the same time, Gwendoline Christie’s appearance as Sheila’s son’s girlfriend is a masterclass in camp villainy. The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt also appears as a well-meaning, if enraging, bank manager, enforcing a litany of bizarre rules and regulations. The audacious oddity of The Boutique’s staff is as enrapturing as it is downright silly. Black-clad, cult-like retail workers await throngs of shoppers and talk in an overwrought vernacular from a time long passed. To them, clothes and the retail experience are near-religious experiences. The film’s second half arguably loses drive by introducing new, less likeable characters and a stronger element of comedy.

There’s a pungent reek of witchcraft about the film, but Strickland has no interest in giving us solid answers. He’s more interested in exploring the bizarre network of pressures and lures which give clothes their power. The desire to be loved, to feel and look good, and to transcend the mortal coil; all of which can be achieved through the perfect look. Not to mention the assortment of visual and narrative goodies he can conjure from this odd little world. Mannequins with pubic hair gush blood from real-looking vaginas, and Fatma Mohamed’s mysterious shop-worker retreats to a dumb-waiter after every shift. Sex and fabric lurk closer than sex and death.

In Fabric is a film with a perfect look, surely a trait of Strickland’s by now. Indie synth band Cavern of Anti-Matter prove adept at crafting Frizzi/Morricone-style Giallo tracks, and hypnotic 70’s TV jingles to boot. Ari Wegner’s cinematography is similarly accomplished in resurrecting a Bava-inspired lurid beauty in a very British way. Think Blood and Black Lace for the 70’s London High Street. In Fabric is nothing if not an exquisitely framed and painted trip.

A killer dress and the Cult of Capitalism, Peter Strickland’s latest arthouse psychological Euro-venture is as gorgeous as any of his films, but arguably his oddest trip to date. Horror fans could be disappointed by the film’s dedication to oddity over scares, but the sincerity and sheer cinematic magic are as alluring as the fine red dress at its core. From its low-key domestic beginnings right up to the pandemonium of its fashion-frenzied finale, In Fabric an arresting experience.

FORMAT: BLU-RAY, VOD | CERT: 18 | DIRECTOR: DANISHKA ESTERHAZY | SCREENPLAY: JED ELINOFF, SCOTT THOMAS | STARRING: DANI KIND, FINLAY WOJTAK-HISSONG, ROMEO CARERE, STEVE LUND, MARIA NASH, NALEDI MAJOLA | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a late ‘60s children’s variety show featuring a titular pop-rock band quartet of fuzzy anthropomorphic animals engaging in various shenanigans, which people of a certain vintage may remember from its syndication into the early ‘80s. In the reality of The Banana Splits Movie, the show never went off the air, having remained a constant staple for decades that has somehow survived without alteration or updating. Even if you’ve never heard of the show (or are only familiar with its jaunty theme tune that soundtracked Hit-Girl’s massacre in 2010’s Kick-Ass), the film shows you enough of it to provide you with all the context you need.

The story follows Harley, a young Banana Splits superfan whose mother gets the family tickets for a live taping, where for reasons suggested but are never entirely quantified, the Splits go rogue and embark on a murderous rampage. Rather than the men in suits of the real-world show, these characters are animatronic automatons, which makes them even more sinister, since people can sometimes be reasoned with but robots are emotionless.

Before all that, a very slow burn introduces the main characters and their awkward relationship dynamics, to the extent that were you not aware of what the film was about, early on you could easily mistake it for a family drama. Aside from a few sinister moments, the horror aspect of the film takes some time to get going, with it being over 30 minutes until the first on-screen death. What violence is shown is considerably less bloody than you might expect, achieved almost entirely by practical effects with a few CGI augmentations.

The family dynamics form the emotional core, with mother Beth trying to hold things together for the excitable and slightly immature Harley and older son Austin, a teenage waster, while her husband Mitch (Harley’s father and Austin’s stepfather) remains disinterested in any actual parenting. Snatches of dialogue reveal their history in ways that feel natural and unforced, and serve to round them out as people. The pool of potential victims is widened by a pair of YouTubers, an over-ambitious father trying to make a star of his young daughter, and various of the studio’s employees, all of whom can be grouped into three general types: those we are to sympathise with, others who are obnoxious but essentially harmless, and several who are full on scumbags. The varying levels you want to see each character die a brutal death adds some tension, especially when it’s unclear who is about to be offed in each scene.

However, as much as emotional empathy can augment a horror movie, it’s the carnage we’re here for, and what we are given doesn’t disappoint. Various segments of the children’s show, such as an obstacle course and a magic show, are repurposed as elaborate kill scenarios, while the unmoving faces of the Splits make them all the creepier as their soulless eyes stare unfeeling at their screaming and suffering victims as they are killed with childlike impromptu weapons like a prop lollipop or an oversized mallet.

The Banana Splits Movie is a collection of familiar tropes and fairly standard developments, but they surprisingly come together into something far more compelling than typical DTV horror titles.

CASTLE ROCK SEASON 1 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: ANDRE HOLLAND, MELANIE LYNSKEY, BILL SKARSGARD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

2017 was a huge year for Stephen King fans as the big-screen version of IT made it to theatres to critical and commercial success. But it was the lesser-known The Dark Tower that King’s constant readers were more interested in, and not just for the visual feast of Roland and the Man in Black finally going at it on screen. What The Dark Tower offered was cinematic proof that all of King’s stories are connected, sharing a singular universe. To that end, the excitement of a TV show that does the same is potentially even more exhilarating. Welcome to Castle Rock.

For the uninitiated, Castle Rock is a fictional town in Maine that has featured in stories (and, in most, cases films) such as The Body (Stand by Me), The Dead Zone, Needful Things, The Mist and, perhaps most notably, The Dark Half. It’s also a stone’s throw from Shawshank Prison. Starting to see where this is going? But far from being a greatest hits compilation of King’s work, Castle Rock shows restraint, tickling the fancy of those in the know while spinning a multi-level mystery that will appeal to everyone.

Our introduction to Castle Rock is a gruesome one as Shawshank governor Dale Lacy (Lost’s Terry O’Quinn) commits suicide in horrific fashion. As a new governor is introduced and a lone man (King alumni, Bill Skarsgård) is unearthed in an oil tank in an unused part of the prison, a mystery starts to reveal itself slowly. The plot thickens as Henry Deaver (a Death Row attorney who went missing in Castle Rock as a child) is called back to his hometown to represent the mysterious man while strange things begin to happen.

Weaving in and out of the core stories are some familiar names and even more familiar faces. Characters such as ex-sheriff Alan Pangborn (played here by Scott Glenn and previously by the likes of Ed Harris and Michael Rooker) and Jackie Torrance (the niece of The Shining’s Jack Torrence) remind you of the world that you’re watching. Meanwhile, series regulars Sissy Spacek (Carrie) and Skarsgård (IT) tip their hat to King’s cinematic legacy.

This is far from the first TV series to emerge from the mind of arguably the greatest living American author. A plethora of movies and series have come before this, but where others have failed (and most of them have), Castle Rock succeeds in droves. Not tethered to a specific creature or supernatural phenomenon, this series is free to do what King does best; explore interesting and fully rounded characters, wrapped up in an absorbing mystery. The surroundings may be familiar but the story is entirely new and that is what’s most intriguing about this.

King’s involvement in this may be limited to Executive Producer, but his presence saturates the landscape of Castle Rock. As a result, this has all the makings of one of the best and most absorbing genre TV series of recent years (a fact that it’s been renewed already is testament).

OUT OF BLUE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CAROL MORLEY / STARRING: PATRICIA CLARKSON, AARON TVEIT, TOBY JONES / RELEASE DATE: 2ND SEPTEMBER

Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer), an astrophysicist who specialises in black holes and is an advocate of the multiverse theory, is found dead next to her telescope having being shot three times. New Orleans Detective and recovering alcoholic Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is assigned the case.

Her first two suspects are Jennifer’s boss Professor Ian Strammi (the always excellent Toby Jones) and her boyfriend/colleague Duncan Reynolds (Jonathan Majors). However, Hoolihan’s investigations lead her on a twisted path that involves Schrödinger’s cat, string theory, quantum mechanics and dark matter, which in turn forces her to confront a repressed childhood trauma concerning a serial killer and has her questioning the nature of existence and the universe.

Based on Martin Amis’ 1997 short novel Night Train, director Carol Morley’s Out of Blue is part murder-mystery, part metaphysical neo-noir, but all weirdly trippy. Indeed, the David Lynch and Nicholas Roeg influences are blatant and, interestingly, Nicholas Roeg’s son Luc is the film’s producer. As interesting as the premise seems, the film itself doesn’t quite live up to expectations, but that’s not to say the film is without merits.

Morley has created a visually gorgeous film thanks to Conrad W. Hall’s cinematography. New Orleans is not the vibrant, colourful city we are used to seeing on screen – here it seems stiflingly claustrophobic, which serves the story well. Clint Mansell’s score is atmospheric, although it does sometimes become little more than sonic wallpaper. The cast all deliver fine performances despite a screenplay that meanders so much that it’s difficult to emotionally engage with the characters, let alone define just what the film’s point is.

Even with the cosmological trappings, it’s not science-fiction and it’s too predictable and clichéd to be a crime drama. That might be deliberate, as during the scene when Hoolihan first visits the crime scene the sound fades to near silence and the camera tracks away from the detective, which might suggest the irrelevancy of the crime to the story as a whole. It might also suggest that, in hunting down the killer, Hoolihan is in the process of discovering herself. While ambiguity is certainly no bad thing, not rewarding an audience with some clues endangers alienating them.