THEN CAME YOU

Stars: Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ford Kiernan, Phyllida Law and Elizabeth Hurley.
Writer: Kathie Lee Gifford
Director: Adriana Trigiani

Rating: ★ ★ ★

In what feels like, for most of its running time, two old friends having a lark in the Scottish countryside finds just enough heart and honesty at key moments to keep Then Came You from being just a sweetly disposable confection. Craig Ferguson, exuding true leading man charisma, shares genuine chemistry with co-lead and scripter Kathie Lee Gifford…which is fortunate, because it’s all the narrative really asks of them.

In an all-too-rare bigscreen outing, Ferguson transposes his stand-up/talkshow persona into the role of Howard Awd, a widower overseeing a lochside estate that was once his home but is now a guesthouse. With his best mate Gavin (Ford Kiernan, delivering the goods in that rom-com staple role), Awd is struggling to keep alive the memory of his late wife by maintaining the magnificent but increasingly dilapidated manor (shot at the picturesque Ardkinglas House in the Scottish coastal hamlet of Cairndow).

Into Awd’s life comes Annabelle Wilson, a Nantucket widow carrying her late husband’s ashes in an empty chocolate box (because her husband’s favourite movie was Forrest Gump, in the first of many movie references that include Titanic, The Way We Were and, amusingly, Braveheart). As Annabelle, Gifford is no Streep but she certainly does all she has to do to convince as a likable fish-out-of-water Yank with a little dark cloud over her soul.

From the moment she’s off the train and in Awd’s care, the pair are giggling and bonding and bickering like a couple of silver-haired teenagers. This almost becomes too much of a good thing, until Ferguson brings the acting chops in a scene where he fronts up about the true nature of his own grief. It’s a relatively brief sequence but it is all the film needs to provide enough grounded emotion in the pic’s second half.

Despite sharing above-the-title credit, Elizabeth Hurley (more breathtakingly beautiful than ever) has only a handful of scenes as Awd’s fiancee; the great Phyllida Law pulls of a thankless role as the pivot of a subplot that never rings true. Adriana Trigiani, ably directing her first feature since the undervalued 2014 melodrama Big Stone Gap, unloads large passages of exposition via disembodied dialogue; Annabelle’s reason for being in Scotland is plonked down by an off-camera Gifford as the pair drive around the stunning countryside (the hardest working crew member was the drone pilot, without a doubt). 

That’s not a big deal, as narrative is secondary to niceties in this type of mature-age romantic fantasy. With two seasoned performers outfront, clearly comfortable in each other’s company, Then Came You will nicely serve the Senior’s Club ticket holders seeking postcard locales and personable dramedy.

FRIENDS AND STRANGERS

Stars: Fergus Wilson, Emma Diaz, Victoria Maxwell, Amelia Conway and Greg Zimbulis.
Writer/Director: James Vaughan

Reviewed at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021 (online).

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Director James Vaughan achieves considerable success with his debut feature, the meandering, understated, ultimately rewarding Friends and Strangers, if only via the skill with which he imbues millennial mumblings with meaning and resonance. Vaughan has his able twenty-something cast communicate via the discordant verbal punctuations (‘like’, ‘um’, ‘D’you think...?’, ‘I don’t know’) synonymous with the generation, utilising the very un-cinematic cadence perhaps as best as can be.

Chief mumbler is Ray, played by Fergus Wilson in a characterisation that alternates between excruciating and endearing. Ray reconnects with Alice (Emma Diaz, nailing ‘fading tolerance’ in most of her scenes) upon her return to Sydney, ultimately inviting himself on a camping trip she has planned. These early scenes mostly consist of Ray not really listening to Alice’s attempts at conversation, with Alice gradually, if politely, distancing herself from him. Once at the campsite, she favours the insight of a pre-teen fellow camper Lauren (Poppy Jones; pictured below, left, with Diaz) over anything Ray offers.

The narrative rejoins Ray back in Sydney, moping about Alice’s rejection to the increasing frustration of his video production company partner Miles (David Gannon). They have a client meeting with waterfront McMansion owner David (a fun Greg Zimbulis), father of the bride (Amelia Conway), to prepare for the wedding shoot, as if a love-starved, self-obsessed minor-man could capture the essence of someone else’s most romantic day. Finally, Vaughan turns to an Allen-esque comical set-up, as Ray stoops to spying on Alice after a chance encounter.

The commentary he affords the solipsism of contemporary, well-to-do lives and their tendency towards introspection to the point of self-obsession has drawn comparisons to French New Wave great Éric Rohmer, particularly his late career work, A Summer’s Tale (1996). Rohmer would often focus on educated young adults and the world they populate, such as beaches, parks and lovely homes (so, Sydney). 

Vaughan has generational malaise and middle-class white privilege in his crosshairs. Friends and Strangers (the title itself carrying Bergman-esque tones) may present as a loosely-structured echo of its lead character’s directionless wanderings, but that would do a disservice to the debutant director’s skill as an observational storyteller and satirist. (The influence of European masters extends beyond the cinematic greats; a lovely shot of a middle harbour bathing spot clearly reflects George Seurat’s iconic painting, ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’).

Opening credits play over artwork from Sydney’s colonisation, preparing the audience for a story in which the setting is as important as the characters. Vaughan’s Sydney is not sweeping shots of foreshore icons (the city skyline is occasionally glimpsed as background detail), but instead the Sydney of affectation - cafes, hairdressers, manicured parks and affluent homes. Just as notable is DOP Dimitri Zaunders expert framing of the ‘ugly beauty’ of big-city life - stacks of pallets jammed under an overpass, the jarring juxtaposition of historical masonry and modern steel beams of which Sydneysiders have become inexplicably tolerant. 

We first meet Ray and Alice not on a park bench silhouetted against the Harbour Bridge, but leaning on a concrete barrier, struggling to connect over traffic noise and looking down upon (literally and figuratively) the boring minutiae of city life. It is an establishing sequence of a confident filmmaker, conveying thematic intent and character depth, and signaling Vaughan as a young director already in touch with his own film language.

SHORTCUT

Stars: Jack Kane, Zander Emlano, Zak Sutcliffe, Sophie Jane Oliver, Molly Dew, David Keyes, Terence Anderson and Matteo De Gregori.
Writer: Daniele Cosci
Director: Alessio Liguori

Rating: ★ ★ ★

A serviceable creature-feature that will play well enough with housebound under-’20s, the patch-quilt monster-movie/teen drama Shortcut is light on logic but buoyed by an engaging spirit. It will certainly be an advantage if you haven’t seen any of the Jeepers Creepers trilogy, Neil Marshall’s Descent or Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic, genre works that clearly influenced writer Daniele Cosci and director Alessio Liguori (and we’ll get to The Breakfast Club beats later), but for a streaming-service rip of those DVD-era guilty pleasures, Shortcut is perfectly watchable.

An Italian/German co-production that dresses up its Euro locales as a very green middle America, we meet our five heroes on a bus trip heading somewhere deep in the woods. Under the care of warmhearted bus driver Joseph (Terence Anderson) are (cue Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’) the every-dude Nolan (Jack Kane), arty blonde Bess (Sophie Jane Oliver), life-of-the-party Karl (Zander Emlano), bespectacled nerd Queenie (Molly Dew) and tough guy rebel Reg (Zak Sutcliffe). Forced onto a sideroad (not really a ‘shortcut’, but...), they are hijacked by snarling escapee Pedro (David Keyes, going all-in on his bad guy turn), a madman known for eating the tongues of his victims.

Pedro soon becomes the least of their problems when their bus breaks down in an abandoned tunnel and the resident of the darkness, a Mothman-like parasitic-humanoid that comes to be known as ‘The Nocturne Wanderer’, begins to hunt them down. Forced into a labyrinthine network of concrete corridors that come with their own dark secrets, the five must find a common strength to survive.

‘Why a whole school bus for these five students?’, ‘Why these five students?’ and ‘Where are they going?’ are just some of the questions left unanswered while watching Shortcut, but such deep-thinking is not really necessary; in fact, it’s best to disengage from reality entirely. These five kids symbolise all teens, and the monsters they face are the allegorical challenges all adolescents face as adulthood looms. 

That might seem a long bow to pull to cut Liguori’s film some slack, but it goes some way to explaining away incongruities and shortcomings that would otherwise derail Shortcut. Age-appropriate audiences will draw more from the characterisations and the dilemmas they face than jaded critics or hardcore horror hounds. 

The overall standard of production - Luca Santagostino’s evocative low-light cinematography; Jacopo Reale’s slick editing; the top-tier practical make-up effects of creature crew supervisor Leonardo Cruciano and offsider Elisabetta Paccapelo - refuses to allow the film to be dismissed as trashy monster malarkey. It generally delivers on that front, of course, but earns respect as a more ambitious entry in the genre.

IN CORPORE

Stars: Clara Francesca Pagone, Naomi Said, Kelsey Gillis, Sarah Timm, Frank Fazio, Christopher Dingli, Timothy McCown Reynolds, Amelia June, Simone Alamango, Don Bridges and Naomi Lisner.
Directors: Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.

Available to view via LIDO at Home. 

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

The challenges faced by four women who just want to shape their destinies on their own terms is the bridging device that binds this portmanteau drama from co-directors Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin.  

Confronted with personal and social hurdles stemming from traditional gender stereotyping, the protagonists in this bracingly contemporary work are not always likable, but that’s kind of the point; whether you love them, hate them or just don’t get them, if you don't respect the decisions they make in the running or ruining of their own lives, then you are part of the problem.

In Corpore (a Latin adverb, meaning ‘in body; in substance’) is broken into four stories, each one focussed on vibrant young women coping with relationship complications. In Melbourne, sculptress Julia (Clara Francesca Pagone) is visiting her friends and parents on a brief trip home from her New York base. Recently wed to a much older man and with broadminded views regarding polygamy and open marriages, Julia indulges her desires when she has morning sex with her old friend Henri (Frank Fazio).

In Malta, Anna (Naomi Said) is facing pressure from her long-term boyfriend Manny (Christopher Dingli) and her extended family to bear children, a life-changing decision that she is not yet willing to undertake. In Berlin, gay couple Rosalie (Sarah Timm) and Milana (Kelsey Gillis) are struggling with jealousies and insecurities steadily on the boil. Then, in New York City, we rejoin Julia as she shares her moment of meaningless infidelity with her silver-fox husband, Patrick (Timothy McCown Reynolds), who, like most of the men in the film, reacts with self-centred petulance and brattish intolerance.  

Two key directorial decisions ensure In Corpore will surface mostly in daring festival placements and in the homes of indie-minded inner-city urbanites. Firstly, the dialogue is improvised, with the actors bouncing off each other with a delivery style that is sometimes pitched a bit high. When it is done right, it conveys heartbreak and honesty and humanity with an aching accuracy; best among the cast is Naomi Said, whose soulful performance is lovely.

The other stylistic choice that Portelli and Malekin gamble with are intensely staged and extended sex scenes. These sequences are clearly designed to positively convey the nature of the emotional connections shared by the characters; in the wake of a particularly heated argument, Timm and Gillis have rough shower sex that speaks to the desperation they are both feeling as their relationship frays. Said and Christopher Dingli make passionate love, yet when their motivations are revealed, the awkward honesty captured is remarkably moving. Many filmmakers claim they only use sex scenes to advance their narratives and build character, but few achieve that noble goal; Portelli and Malekin, and their fearless cast, do so with grace and class.

In Corpore is a slyly subversive battle-of-the-sexes commentary that positions modern young women determined to chart their own course through life as a kind of new heroic narrative arc. The DNA of such landmark empowerment films as Paul Mazurky’s An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends (1978) courses through its veins. Like those independently-minded films, In Corpore may also emerge as a work that ushered in a period of social change.

APARTMENT 1BR

Stars: Nicole Brydon Bloom, Alan Blumenfeld, Susan Davis, Naomi Grossman, Clayton Hoff, Giles Matthey, Taylor Nichols, Earnestine Phillips and Celeste Sully.
Writer/Director: David Marmor

Available in Australia on iTunes, Amazon, TelstraTV BoxOffice, Fetch TV, Youtube and on DVD from JB Hi-Fi. Distributed by Eagle Entertainment.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Recalling Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Michael Winner’s The Sentinel (1977) in its depiction of the paranoid untwirling of a young woman’s psyche, David Marmor’s Apartment 1BR is a similarly tightly-wrought, singularly-focussed exercise in psychological and existential terror.

Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) is only just finding her feet as an adult. Her temp job, however thankless, is secure, and the distance she is putting between herself and her father brings a new sense of calm (as does the Zoloft). However, like a great many Los Angelinos, taking control of your mind while establishing your own small portion of the city is a daunting task. When she finds a too-good-to-be-true rental in a classically Stucco-rendered gated complex, Sarah envisions her life taking on some kind of order; she promises the affable tenants committee that she will do all she can to fit into their order of living.

Her ideal apartment begins to go bump in the night to such a degree she becomes sleep-deprived, allowing doubt over her own powers of perception to creep in. Any deviation from what is accepted by the body corporate draws increasingly disturbing ire (let’s just say pets don’t fare well in these types of movies). Soon, Sarah’s defiance in the face of what the community requires of her spins the film into some chillingly realistic moments of horror.

As recently as one year ago (when Australian audiences first saw the film, then known as 1BR, at its Monster Fest premiere screenings) the key narrative elements were Sarah’s - one woman’s story, basking subtextually in #MeToo empowerment and self-realisation. But viewed again as we bear witness to the death throes of an administration fuelled by cult-like devotion and immoral, self-serving rationalisation, Marmor’s rogue’s gallery of bullying neighbours takes on razor-sharp real-world relevance. 

Willing to maim and torture (and more again) to ensure their collective social goals are met - goals that allude to the sanctimony of imbuing in oneself and those that follow you the moral high-ground - 1BR is as incisive a slice of pitch black social satire as it is a squirm-inducing horror film. Played to perfection by such everyperson character actor types as Naomi Grossman, Clayton Hoff, Giles Matthey and a terrifying Taylor Nichols, the tenants are so grotesquely normal in their appearance yet so vividly vile in the inhumanity of their society. 

The final frames hint that good people like Sarah need to stay alert and be ready to act and react, because gated communities festering with self-interest and privilege are everywhere. With his remarkable debut feature, David Marmor offers you a slice of American pie and rubs your face in it.

AN UNQUIET GRAVE

Stars: Jacob A. Ware and Christine Nyland.
Writers: Christine Nyland and Terence Krey.
Director: Terence Krey.

WORLD PREMIERE: Sunday October 11 at NIGHTSTREAM Virtual Film Festival, U.S.A.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

A sly, slow-burn two-hander exhibiting a genre heritage best described as ‘supernatural-noir’, An Unquiet Grave tightens the narrative screws with a mix of psychological thrills, grief-infused drama and OMG horror. Kept real by grounded depictions of desperation, sorrow and fear by two terrific lead performances, director Terence Krey’s high-end low-budgeter builds empathy and understanding for its protagonists before getting down and dirty in a pulse-quickening third act.

An established and respected ensemble player (notably in TV series like Boardwalk Empire and Graves), Jacob A. Ware takes full advantage of leading man status as ‘Jamie’, fleshing out the nuanced psychosis impacting a man still struggling with the death of his wife, Julie. A year on, he has taken to driving in the dark of night with Julie’s sister, Ava (Christine Nyland, who co-scripted), to the site where Julie died. Their shared hope is that Julie may not have lived her final days if what Jamie has learned is true.

Along the way, interaction between the pair waivers from warm and understanding to edgy and devious. Nyland and Krey’s script is a work of considerable skill, with each line playing a carefully constructed role in complicating character traits and strengthening the conceit. When the setting shifts from the front seat of the car to a cabin in the woods and the narrative spins from sideway glances and ambiguous wordplay to shovels and shallow graves, the transition is seamless. 

If, by the hour mark, you are wondering why The Unquiet Grave is bowing at the Nightstream horror fest, one especially challenging sequence will silence your concerns. While certainly a great visceral horror sequence, the reveal also reinforces the notion that the true horror in the story of these lost souls stems from their broken hearts.  

Krey, Nyland and Ware stay focussed on character and mood over genre tropes and histrionics, aided immeasurably by the artful eye of DOP Daniel Fox, who works wonders with a lot of single-source light/night-time location work. An Unquiet Grave is an assured genre exercise in the corrosive nature of profound sadness and how it can dissolve the moral core of good people.

THE UNFAMILIAR

Stars: Jemima West, Christopher Dane, Rebecca Hanssen, Rachel Lin and Harry Macmillan-Hunt.
Writer: Jennifer Nicole Stang and Henk Pretorious
Director: Henk Pretorious

Screening at the South African Independent Film Festival on 23rd and 30th August. Released in North America on August 21st; September 11th in the UK; and, October 28th in South Africa.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Reintegration into the peaceful stability of suburban family life proves tough for Afghanistan War doctor Elizabeth ‘Izzy’ Cormack (Jemima West; pictured, above), a guilt-ridden medic gripped by PTSD in Henk Pretorious’ psychological chiller, The Unfamiliar. When that safeplace also begins to unravel and her fractured reality is encroached upon by supernatural forces, this low-key but tightly-spun tale of terror balances the torment of a dissociative mental condition with some legitimately ghoulish scares.

Everything seems slightly off-centre upon Izzy’s arrival - stepdaughter Emma (Rebecca Hanssen) is distant; angelic preteen Tommy (Harry McMillan-Hunt) is acting out; husband Ethan (Christopher Dane), while more aggressively amorous than before, also brings too much of his work home. This proves particularly worrisome, given he is a Professor of Polynesian Culture and what he brings home includes a Hawaiian tiki that carries with it a dark spiritual presence.

There is a faint sniff of cultural appropriation in Pretorious’ premise; ‘cursed tribal artefacts’ as a plot device peaked with that Brady Bunch episode. In 2020, the notion that a Stygian symbol of Islander folklore is the kicker for a middle class white household’s torment is a bit ripe (even if the script tries to deflect). The director also draws on some familiar haunted house tropes that suggest pics like The Amityville Horror (1979, 2005), Insidious (2010) and a couple of the Paranormal Activity sequels were inspirations.

The pic finds some fresh energy when Ethan decides Izzy and the kids decamp back to Hawaii, allowing for all the supernatural forces toying with the family’s fate to fully emerge. Pretorious and DOP Pete Wallington shoot the reveal of the film’s devilish protagonist (repping stellar creature design work from makeup fx veteran Robbie Drake) with a genuinely nightmarish glee. The other ace-in-the-hole is leading lady West, who conveys first the strain of PTSD then the terror of a demonic face-off with the required intensity.

While the lack of cast starpower and workmanlike helming will keep this uneven but watchable creepshow from wide theatrical play, genre festival audiences and streaming services will certainly find space for The Unfamiliar. It is not unforeseeable that, in much the same way Freddy Krueger turned a support part in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) into a star-making, franchise-building turn, so might Pretorious and co-scripter Jennifer Nicole Stang focus in on their creepy demon star should sequels manifest.

THE PICKUP GAME

Featuring: Robert Beck, Maximilian Berger, Minnie Lane, Paul Janka, Ross Jefferies, Jennifer Li, Marcus Nero and Erik Von Markovik.
Writers: James De'Val , Barnaby O'Connor, Matthew O'Connor and Mike Willoughby.
Directors: Barnaby O'Connor, Matthew O'Connor.

Premieres on Australian streaming platform iwonder, September 2020 (date tbc).

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Predatory alpha-male entrepreneurs and the vulnerable marks that they exploit are put on trial in The Pickup Game, a searing, exciting exposé of the ‘seduction coaching’ industry and the sexual snake-oil salesmen bleeding millions of dollars from desperately lonely sadsacks who equate meaningless conquest with manlihood. Directing brothers Barnaby and Matthew O'Connor’s skewering of toxic masculinity and coldhearted capitalism could not be better timed or more scalpel-like in its incisiveness.

Since self-styled seduction guru Ross Jefferies published the misogyny-laden bestseller ‘How to Get the Women you Desire into Bed’ in the mid-80s, the application of such pseudo-scientific concepts as Neuro-Linguistic Programming to bed women has boomed (mostly online, of course) yet has somehow managed to maintain a ‘Fight Club’-like secrecy. Entirely aware of the reprehensibility of their undertaking, pickup preachers like Robert ‘Beckster’ Beck and Marcus ‘Justin Wayne’ Nero hide behind terminology like ‘Higher Self Learning’ and ‘Confidence Enhancement’ to sell lengthy courses in what are essentially hunting techniques; manipulation methodology designed to identify potential victims, isolate the vulnerable and ‘close the deal’.

The O’Connors pinpoint the 2005 publication of writer Neil Strauss’ The Game as the kicker for the new wave of male self-entitlement. Strauss lived undercover with pioneers like Erik von Markovik, aka ‘Mystery’, at the height of the ‘Project Hollywood’ movement, when a group of men defined the predation process through night after night of Sunset Strip partying. Breakaways from Project Hollywood would go on the establish the insidious Real Social Dynamics (RSD), an online society that grew into a cesspool of abuse advocacy, provided the platform for misogynist/racist Julien Blanc and, ultimately, became the focus of a highly-publicised San Diego rape prosecution.

The Pickup Game presents the key tenents of seduction coaching, ensuring that its audience fully understands the principles being taught. It also offers a broad spectrum of views - MRA hero and tightly man-bunned industry leader Maximilian Berger, aka 'RSDMax', has plenty to say (much of it in defense of Blanc and the reception afforded him by Melbourne demonstrators in 2014); veteran pickup-artist Paul Janka recalls the emotional void and exhausting pointlessness of committing to a PUA’s life; and, dating coach Minnie Lane presents the women’s perspective and how learning to overcome ‘approach anxiety’ need not utilise manipulation and predation.

The film ultimately returns to where the pickup industry began - Ross Jefferies’ decision to alter the course of his life. Some time 40 years ago, it inspired an angry young man to turn his insecurities regarding women into rage-filled sex and shitty writing. In 2019, believe it or not, the reality of the life of an ageing PUA - the very life awaiting those dire modern disciples of Jefferies' drivel - is even sadder.

BLACK WATER: ABYSS

Stars: Jessica McNamee, Luke Mitchell, Amali Golden, Anthony J. Sharpe, Rumi Kikuchi and Benjamin Hoetjes.
Writers: Ian John Ridley and Sarah Smith.
Director: Andrew Traucki

In select Australian cinemas from AUGUST 6; available on Blu-ray/DVD from SEPTEMBER 23 and early digital purchase from SEPTEMBER 16.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Few filmmakers have committed themselves so determinedly to the ‘man-vs-beast’ horror subgenre as Andrew Traucki. From crocodiles (Black Water, 2007), to sharks (The Reef, 2010), to mythical leopards (The Jungle, 2013), the Australian director has taken barebone narratives and potentially stereotypical characters and crafted solid, occasionally gripping, nailbiters. Thirteen years after his debut film hit big internationally, Traucki returns to face off against the apex Australian predator in Black Water: Abyss, a terrifically effective sequel that exhibits what a masterful teller of suspenseful stories he has become.

His latest borrows from a certain ‘shark attack’ classic in establishing early on the fatal threat posed by his reptilian villain. A pair of lost tourists stumble into the lair of a saltwater crocodile and meet an ugly demise; just as with Spielberg’s Jaws, the fate of anyone that crosses the creature’s path is firmly etched in the audience’s mind from these opening frames. Working from an appropriately lean script by Ian John Ridley and Sarah Smith, Traucki then nimbly introduces his protagonists and establishes the dynamics, before getting them in the water quick-smart.

Hero-guy is Eric (Luke Mitchell), an outdoorsy, adventurous type who coerces his significant other, Jennifer (Jessica McNamee), into a caving trip in Northern Australia. Along for the material is their travel journo friend Viktor (Benjamin Hoetjes) and his up-for-the-experience girlfriend, Yolanda (Amali Golden), the party of four entirely under the laddish leadership of local guide, Cash (Anthony J. Sharpe). After blowing off a storm warning (“Nah, it’s headin’ south”), the group plunge themselves into an underground cavern system, an environment prone to a) flooding and b) tourist-eating reptiles.

It is in this enclosed environment that Black Water: Abyss spends most of its running time and really hits its stride, with Traucki and his skilled DOP Damien Beebe creating a vivid sense of geography and often nerve-jangling tension. The crocodile, its presence always felt, is only fleetingly glimpsed; one underwater sequence, during which an ill-fated character’s torch slowly reveals the creature laying in wait, it’s mouth agape, is pure nightmare material. 

There is no denying that crocodiles and alligators, with their ruthless carnivorous drive and prehistoric visage, make for great movie ‘bad guys’ (see, Alexandre Aja’s Crawl, 2019; Greg McLean’s Rogue, 2007; Steve Miner’s Lake Placid, 1999). However, animal lovers will appreciate that Traucki doesn’t go all out to demonise his crocodile co-stars (at least, not until the final confrontation), instead applying some science to explain their actions and treating them as wild animals merely doing what wild animals do. 

The pic benefits from solid acting across the board and a humanising subplot that adds just enough backstory to the four friends to distract audiences from guessing who’ll next be dealt the infamous ‘Death Roll’. Credit also due to Traucki and his writers for continually finding plausible ways to get the cast off that rock ledge and back in the water and to editor Scott Walmsley for his precise skill in clipping together some of the best jump-scares in recent memory.

THE LEGEND OF THE FIVE

Stars: Lauren Esposito, Gabi Sproule, Leigh Joel Scott, Nicholas Adrianakos, Deborah An, Beth Champion, Eric James Gravolin, Matthew Pritchard and Tiriel Mora.
Writer: Peter McLeod
Director: Joanne Samuel

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

The Breakfast Club go to Ferngully in The Legend of The Five, the new Aussie Y.A. indie romp that leans heavily on the ‘80s teen movie beats to soft-sell a contemporary and urgent environmental message. Director Joanne Samuel and writer Peter McLeod show a lot of respect for their target audience, those socially-aware, issue-driven young people who look to Greta Thunberg in the same way their parents looked to Molly Ringwald.

The core group of characters are a demographically-diverse lot, clearly designed to appeal to as many corners of a modern high-school courtyard as possible. The key protagonist is displaced American Zoe (Lauren Esposito), whose dad has chosen to move to Australia to help cope with the death of Zoe’s mom. A loner at her new school, Zoe crosses paths with perky alpha-girl Caitlin (Gabi Sproule); her jock bf, Javier (Nicholas Adrianakos); dark, arty type Kaylee (Deborah An); and, bespectacled book-worm Brit, Owen (Leigh Joel Scott).

On a school excursion to a museum, the group find themselves in possession of a mystical wooden shaft (introduced in a thrilling prologue, set in 1922 and straight out of an Indiana Jones-type spectacle), that soon hurtles them across space and time into a woodland fantasy realm. Here, an ageing wizard (the great Tiriel Mora) sets their quest in motion - the chosen five are ‘elementalists’, representative of nature’s forces, and they must seek out The Tree of Knowledge (recalling James Cameron’s own enviro-epic, Avatar) and save it from an evil sorceress (Beth Champion) before the forest, then the world, is destroyed.

Gen-Xers will have a blast spotting nods to the films of their youth that have provided inspiration for Samuel’s first directorial effort, coming 41 years after she played Max’s wife Jessie in Dr. George Miller’s iconic 1979 actioner, Mad Max. The bickering besties are cast a little older, but they could be The Goonies, or its more fantastical offshoot, Explorers (both 1985). The creatures of the make-believe world (stunningly shot amongst Sydney’s Blue Mountains by DOP Casimir Dickson) recall Ridley Scott’s Legend (1985), Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986) and, more recently, Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).

Where Samuel and McLeod most successfully stake their claim as strong, legitimate voices for the younger generation is in a sequence that takes their characters deep into a darkness where they must confront their own negative selves. The scene highlights teenage fears, jealousies, grief and insecurities in very real terms, utilising the fantasy setting as a means by which to conquer those forces that bear heavily on young minds and emotions. 

It is a bold narrative sidestep that adds resonance to a film that might have otherwise played too simplistically for the 13+ age bracket. As it stands, The Legend of The Five is solidly-packaged, all-ages Australian entertainment with strong international prospects.

THE LEGEND OF THE FIVE will play a limited Australian theatrical season from June 25; other territories to follow.