The bizarre tale of a zombie kangaroo terrorising a rural Australian village is told in Ryan Coonan's Australian horror film, which you may also interpret as a dark comedy. The movie, which is primarily set at night in the small town of Axehead, stars Tess Haubrich as Sheriff Maddy, a young police officer attempting to carry on her late father's legacy.
The townspeople are ripped to pieces by a string of horrific incidents just as she is beginning to feel overwhelmed by the demands of her work. Before it's too late, Maddy and her quirky Uncle Schmitty-played by seasoned actor Michael Biehn-must try to halt the zombie attacker. As they investigate, they find that Rippy, a massive undead kangaroo on the loose, is the real culprit. Hold on tight as we embark on this strange Australian journey into the mayhem of the outback with undead kangaroos.
The strange idea alone makes it worth seeing, but the uneven execution makes it unsatisfactory. Rippy the zombie roo can occasionally be legitimately unsettling and unsettling, but the slapstick required to strike a balance between comedy and horror can clash with heavier, more serious components. The mood is continuously changed by this schizophrenic technique, with differing results.
Coonan obviously did his research since Rippy captures the feel of rural Australia. The remote Outback location, complete with dusty country roads and dilapidated farmhouses illuminated by flickering porch lighting, feels genuine. But the erratic CGI is startling and takes us straight out of the eerie countryside. Rippy himself frequently looks more like a rubber Halloween costume than a realistic zombie. Any sense of menace is undermined by the floating fakeness when he punches or rushes with teeth and claw. It's also unfortunate because gore effects that use real makeup were not bad.
Gave it a half star extra for being an Australian film...
