Unleashing the Demons

When desperately looking for movies on ScreamBox with at least a 5.0 rating, I came upon this Australian indie with a whopping 7.1 on IMDB. Enthusiastically, I queued it up expecting something great. I was fooled.

Upon further inspection, the 7.1 came from 10 people. No one had reviewed it in writing. The only "critical" review link went to a dead page. These were not good signs. So I decided it was my duty to future potential viewers to at least give them SOMETHING to go on, and hope it would encourage others to contribute as well. Besides, I tend to like Australian indie films no matter the budget...and this one was only $10,000. And according to the incredibly long Trivia section, a lot of work went into making the most of it.

The look of the film is actually pretty good. The use of outdoor scenery and more professionally executed photography than one would expect in a low budget makes it look like a much bigger production. The story itself was okay, but there are issues too overwhelming to help lift this little film into true 7.1 rating status (in my opinion, of course).

First off, the acting is sub par. The main actor is particularly poor and hard to like. This is a short story at best, and as the Trivia admits, scenes were padded on and on and on to reach 80 minutes. And it takes 60 of those 80 to finally get interesting. But then, as the movie gets closer to the end it gets dumber until it reaches a ridiculous finale. I literally yelled at the TV, "That's IT??"

I really wanted to like this movie, I truly did. And I give it points for making that $10,000 look like $50,000 and for keeping me watching until that very dire, lousy ending.. I think they can do better next time.