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Stars: Rita Artmann, Joe Bauer, Dryden Bingham, Daniel Bradford, Andrew O’Sullivan, Jess Thomas-Hall, Mark Theodossiou, Laura Jane Turner, Carmel Savage, Meisha Lowe, Johancee Theron, Cameron Sowden | Written and Directed by Joe Bauer

At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking The Killage is steaming pile of filmic horse shit, filled with some of the worst acting ever committed to celluloid. That is until you realise instead that the film in fact one of the greatest movie spoofs since the Leslie Nielsen classic, Airplane! I really should have guessed given the pun-tastic title…

Undoubtedly inspired by the outrageous cinematic stylings of Troma, The Killage follows a group of eleven recruits, composed entirely of excruciating social stereotypes, and one dorky camp instructor, who embark on a weekend-long work retreat in the quasi-wilderness of northern south-east Queensland. Of course this being in essence a slasher movie, the retreat doesn’t...

There’s a decidedly oriental tinge to this year’s Gold Coast Film Festival. Jiang Wen’s extremely successful rice-noodle Chinese comedy western Let The Bullets Fly (which had its premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival – read my review Here) has been chosen as the opening night film and there’s a ‘Cool Japan’ line-up which features the Australian premieres of Makoto Shinkai‘s (Voice of a Distant Star) exquisitely rendered anime Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below - a nostalgic and mystical adventure concerning family loss which firmly places the young director in a league with the laudable likes of manga masters Katsuhiro Ohtomo, Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki. On the non-animated front we have the welcome return screenings of Anh Hung Tran‘s Sydney Film festival favourite Norweigan Wood and Takashi Miike‘s kinetic Seven Samurai throwback 13 Assassins. Two further manic manga adaptations, Shinsuke Sato...

The Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival is, once again, set to push the boundaries of modern horror with their sixth annual edition that will run for four terrifying nights on Oct. 13-16 at the Artisphere theater in Washington, D.C.

For the opening night event on Oct. 13, Spooky Movie proves its international flair with the over-the-top Japanese zombie gorefest and action flick Helldriver, directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura, which will have two screenings, one for the early birds at 7:00 p.m. and one for the late-night crowd at 10:00 p.m.

The closing night film on the 16th is also an international affair: Joe Bauer’s The Killage, an Australian horror comedy that sends up the teen camp counselors slasher genre. Plus, there will be several Aussie short films accompanying this final feature.

Smooshed in between these two events are some of the most original and provocative terror flicks around,...

Riffing on the 80s slasher genre is nothing new and when a movie start to get too smart for their own good it can really run off the rails (ie. Detention). The Killage, a new and Very independent Australian slasher parody looks like it might avoid the pitfall of being straight-up annoying by actual being funny and oozing a ton of indie charm.

Synopsis:

A group of eleven recruits, composed entirely of excruciating social stereotypes, and one dorky camp instructor, embark on a weekend-long work retreat in the quasi-wilderness of northern south-east Queensland. Everything goes relatively smoothly, that is to say, lamely, until (you guessed it) one of the group turns out to be a homicidal maniac hell-bent on dispatching the others in a variety of creative ways. Based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel (sic), The Killage is a wacky, fright-filled journey into the darkest recesses of the human intestines. Bring a box of tissues.