Razorback

Umbrella Entertainment

R4 Collectors Edition

Razorback is a surprisingly impressive monster film set in outback Australia with the cinematography of an art film and the plot of a cult exploitation classic. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, who up until this time was mainly known for his music videos and later went on to direct Highlander, Residen Evil Extinct and even episodes of the English edition of Queer as Folk, it has a sense of style not normally seen in cult films.

At the time it was derided for having style over substance, but I think this as uncharitable. The reality is that many films use style as a way to tell a story – colour, shadow, imagery, symbols, sound – and a non linear approach to storytelling is common in Europe cinema particularly, Italian horror comes to mind. Razorback has surprisingly impressive cinematography and is actually a rather moody and layered film, on DVD it is quite a visual feast. There are lots of memorable scenes, moody set pieces and even some nice dream sequences.

Certainly it is a strange amalgam of genres, it is Jaws in the outback with a giant pig (Razorback), a country inbred horror tale and meat eaters via animal liberationists. It seems to mix an art film sensibility with a cult genre film approach and this combination is unusual to say the least.

The film is packed with stereotypes and caricatures which have a dark humour about them, they are so extreme, so over the top that they are both shocking and amusing. Petpak is just so utterly repulsive you cannot believe it and yet it works. Having seen Razorback a few times, I see something more every time I watch it; I would really categorize it as a dark fantasy since so many elements seem to be a mixture of reality and perverse fantasy. The soundtrack by Iva Davies of Icehouse is excellent and creates a great atmosphere.

But, I should be honest, there are some problems and that major one is the Razorback ! It must be the worst mechanical animal ever created ! It looks terrible and as you will hear in the documentary it was literally a giant stuffed pig on wheels which could hardly be moved ! In addition, certainly some of the acting also leaves a little to be desired, I found Jake Cullen as the haunted grandfather wanting to avenge the death of his grandchild a bit wooden and unconvincing, but the others were reasonable.

The storyline is bizarre yet captivating. Jack Cullen is looking after his grandchild and without much warning, his house is torn apart by a large pig like creature and explodes. Nobody believes his story and he is put on trial in a local court for murder. While he is acquitted he becomes a pariah and so he begins a vendetta against the Razorback.

Cut to years later...

An American TV investigator comes to an outback town to document the killing of Kangaroos by Petpak to make cheap and nasty petfood. She obviously makes enemies pretty quickly and when she decides to make a night time clandestine visit to Petpak she has overstepped the mark. Two rather perverse brothers, Benny and Dicko decide to rough her up, indeed Dicko wants to take it much further, but before they can have their fun the razorback tears her and her car apart in a rather impressive and graphic scene.

Her husband travels to Australia to find his missing wife and the search for the pig begins. He befriends Benny and Dicko who rough him up leaving him wandering alone at night after a rather out of control roo shoot. When Cullen thinks he knows what happened to the missing animal liberationist, they leave him injured so the Razorback can kill him. This leads, of course, to the final hunt and the one to one battle between the enraged husband and the mechanical pig !

The edition from Umbrella is a great 16.9 transfer and is beautifully clear with a 5.1 soundtrack, having originally seen this on video on its first release, it is marvellous to see such a high quality print. It really shows of the cinematography and the soundtrack by Iva Davies sounds awesome in DD5.1

Umbrella has not scrimped on the extras either, this release includes some great extras including Jaws on Trotters, a seventy minute documentary, an audio interview with Gregory Harrison, deleted scenes, a stills and poster gallery and more..

While Razorback is available is a single DVD release, it will also be included on the Ozploitation box sets released by Umbrella late October this year.