R4 DVD
Sony Entertainment
Ozploitation
cinema is something which is ever so unique and exciting; indeed it is my
favourite type of film. Combining
exploitation and unique Australian content it offers something which stands out
from other genres of cult entertainment.
Generally, Ozploitation cinema has been a thing of the past with films primarily
made during the Seventies and Eighties and yet with the appearance of Dying
Breed a fresh breath of air has been breathed into an old genre. Dying Breed
brings together so many traditional exploitation themes from cannibalism to
inbreeding, human meat pies to mantraps, a perverse twist on Australian history
to supposedly extinct Tasmanian Tigers.
The
film opens with a horrific retelling of the end of the life of Alexander
Peirce, the Pieman. He was a real character from Australian history who was so
degraded and mistreated by the authorities that he turned to cannibalism to
survive on escape. As an Irishman he had a seething hatred for the English who
ran the penal settlements and did everything he could to get out. He was the
only prisoner to escape Sarah Island and survive. He convinced seven convicts
to go with him and when he arrived on the other side of Tasmania was the only one
left. He had eaten the others during the journey and has their remains in his
pockets.
As
he is hunted down by the British, he reaches the edge of a cliff and faces off
against a British officer, as he bites out the officers throat, he sees the elusive
Tasmanian tiger and then falls to his death. However, that is not the end of Pierce,
it seems he has fathered many children and his descendants live isolated in the
village of Sarah to this day.
We
then cut to the present and Nina is on the way to Tasmania with her boyfriend
Matt, totally obnoxious city boy Jack and his girlfriend Rebecca. Nina’s sister
went missing in Tasmania some eight years and was later found drowned. However,
she left a tantalizing clue, a record of what looks like a fresh Tasmanian
tiger print. Nina wants to complete her sister’s work and find the elusive
tiger. She also has some nagging doubts about her sister’s death and these are exacerbated
by strange visions of her sister being raped and tortured. There are also many reports
of numerous missing tourists from the same region. So off they go following in
her footsteps.
Soon
they reach the last known place where Nina’s sister stayed, a small isolated
township called “Sarah”. The village seems like a place out of time,
obsessively devoted to its Irish heritage and to the “Pieman” – indeed their speciality
is their meat pies which are celebrated throughout the region ! The locals seem
like a very strange bunch, friendly yet with hostility just under the surface.
They are more than a bit like Jack, who seems to want to start fights with everyone
and he soon has a major run-in with a local, things are not off to a good
start.
As
they head out into the landscape, and it is certainly superb looking countryside,
they find they are not just hunting the Tiger but they are being hunted as
well. The hunting motif is nicely explored throughout the film. Pierce hunted
by the British, the Tiger hunted to extinction (well, perhaps), Jack hunting
local animals and the city dwellers hunted by the inbred Tassie folk.
The
acting is professional, the look of the film convincing and the photography of
the Tasmanian landscape is quite stunning. The juxtaposition of the brutality
of both the city and country folk and the sheer beauty of the landscape comes
through clearly. I found it quite poignant to see Nina sitting quietly watching
a rabbit and Jack suddenly shooting a cross bow bolt through it for dinner.
The
torture and bloodshed is at a pretty high level and very well done. It will
certainly have you cringing but in my mind the violence is not gratuitous and
fits well within the context of the film.
It
would be easy to see this film as being filled with stereotypes and caricatures,
yet this would be a superficial reading of the film. Good exploitation and
horror cinema takes well used themes and brings new life to them and this is
what Dying Breed does. It takes the sort of inbred horror of The Hills Have
Eyes, creature feature stories and a unique take on the cannibal tale to make a
very memorable and bloody horror film. All this and a good Aussie twist as well
– what more could you ask for !
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here
to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)