Out of the Body

When David Gaze (Mark Hembrow) falls asleep his spirit leaves his body to go on astral jaunts around town during which he witnesses a series of murders.

Australian B-movie/exploitation director Brian Trenchard-Smith might not be a true cinematic auteur, but I've never been disappointed by his work as far as pure entertainment goes. Out of the Body is admittedly a very silly effort, and one that careens wildly out of control in its final act, but it certainly isn't boring, and as far as I am concerned that is more than half the battle won.

With numerous supernatural murders, a sex scene that turns into a nightmare, the brutal slaying of an innocent pet cat, a possessed car, and an outrageously over-the-top performance from its star, quite how anyone can feel short-changed by this film is completely beyond my comprehension. Trenchard's direction isn't without style either, the out of body sequences making great use of strong coloured lighting and smooth POV camera-work.

In fact, the film is worth a watch just to witness Gaze waking from one of his nightmarish astral journeys to find himself throttling the cat—it's absolutely hilarious!

This film is easily some of BMX Bandits star John Ley's best work. His part as the detective trying to catch the astral travelling killer is played with the skill of an acting genius. The plot is thin, to say the least, but you can't go past a low quality Australian movie like this. The slender plot is sure to provide a few laughs (it's not supposed to be a comedy!), as are those ridiculous black eyes...

You know, I didn't get paid for sitting through this garbage, so there must be something wrong with me; what kind of a masochist would watch a film like "Out of the Body" for free? A man "has visions of murders". The cops "don't believe him" and "think he committed the murders". He is "possessed by an evil spirit". A tired, senseless script, combined with the strangely amateurish work of an experienced horror director (Brian Trenchard-Smith) and a completely unengaging lead, produce a pathetic time-waster. Not to mention the heavy Australian accents or the poor audio, which make much of the dialogue hard to understand. (*)

One evening I wanted to watch with my two friends the film "Scream" but we had borrowed the wrong one and the lady had given "Out of the Body" to us. So we watched it and we almost just laughed. The whole film is so stupid that I can't really explain it. At the beginning a woman is hanging in the air or when the man is at the psychiatrist's and suddenly opens his eyes and starts to scream it is so strange and silly that you just can laugh. WARNING: Don't watch this film!!!

Nothing else in the film beats the sudden opening death, and mood setting in Brian Trenchard-Smith's Australian supernatural-horror (which was filmed on Sydney locations). The above quote is the response of one the investigating police detectives to the aftermath of the first kill. 'Out of the Body' is entertaining when it goes against logic, relishes in its lead's exaggerted performance of his character's decaying head space and sprinkles in some dark humour within bizarre situations. But you can say it's an up and down affair, which grows stranger, yet less effective as it goes along.

The story doesn't break new ground, where an unlucky music university student begins to have premonitions when alseep of POV shots of some unnkown killer stalking/murdering women by removing their eyeballs. So the added twist to the well worn premise is that it's primely supernatural in the way the victims are killed and those being targeted seem to be professional, headstrong and independant women. So what's the link. Well, lets just say expect there to be more questions than answers by the end of the film. There are certain story arches that feel like they're leading up to something of importance, but go nowhere with it. So the plot is incredibly disjointed, inconsistant and quickly moves through "nobody believes me, especially the cops, so I better save the day myself" routine which drives our protagonist to astral travel/specteral vampires mode without any sort of basis. Actually those moments are enjoyable, because they're so silly in their hsyterics which undermines whatever tension and an intensely jittery Mark Hembrow amusingly over-does it when fighting his confusion and desperation to save these women.

There's a otherworldly vibe to its atmosphere, especially during the night dream sequences as the cinematography glides and music creeps in. Smith also tries stylise alot of the night time set-pieces with lighting, shades of red/or green/or blue. Nothing over-the-top, but it was noticable, sometimes oddly placed, but typical 80s flair.