Stones of Death

Low-budget Oz shocker mostly delivers what it promises as the teenage inhabitants of a residential estate run afoul an ancient Aboriginal curse.

Ideal for the teenage video market, whilst the cast are obviously older than the school-age students they depict, this isn't anything unusual and certainly doesn't detract from the otherwise tense mood. Sometimes resembles an MTV video, the make-up effects are gory and the killing devices are imaginative albeit the body count is relatively limited.

Likeable cast features Zoe Carides becoming increasingly concerned by the actions of her father (Oldfield) after she learns that the commercial development he oversaw lies above an ancient Aboriginal burial ground. Supporting cast is an all-Aussie affair with Tom Jennings (who was prominent in 'Sons & Daughters' around the same time), Natalie McCurry ('Chances') and Deborah ('not happy Jan') Kennedy as the sage school teacher whose knowledge of the ancient stones' meaning heralds the subsequent danger. Some viewers might also recognise Anthony Ackroyd in a blink-and-you'll-miss it part as a police constable sickened to discover the mutilated corpse of one of the curse's hapless victims, whilst Sean Scully, Alan Lovell and Steve Dodd are also potentially familiar faces to local audiences.

Plenty of colourful dialogue, garish 80s wardrobe and superfluous musical numbers, whilst another reviewer mentioned a Brisbane setting, this looks more like New South Wales landscape & housing (and vehicle regos).

Aside from the final act which feels a little unresolved, it's a decent exploitation effort with committed performances, contemporaneously a little less eerie than 'Spook' but just a little more professional than 'Houseboat Horror' and worthy of an Ozploitation film aficionado's burgeoning collection 😊

Residents of a small housing development are being butchered off after finding strange rocks on themselves. Seems that the houses were built upon an old graveyard. Low budgeted flick has an interesting enough premise, but falls very short of its goals mainly due to an extremely low budget, shoddy camera work and a weak, below par cast. Rated R; Violence.

Plot: Residents living on land built on an ancient burial ground die after finding strange stones.

Kadaicha started off looking very promising but as time went on, didn't seem to go anywhere at all. It started to meander too much and take too long to reach the conclusion. The acting was very good for this type of movie (compared to most low budget horror flicks), but the deaths weren't very gory and the ending was rather dull.

Overall I feel this film could have been much more interesting as the storyline itself was quite good. Sadly it's just too boring - I wouldn't recommend seeking this out unless you're a collector.

4/10

Kadaicha are ancient Aborigine stones whose hellish curse reaches from beyond the grave.Anyone receiving such a stone is doomed to die in terrifying circumstances.A group of local teenagers are each experiencing the same nightmarish dream about an eerie cave with sinister rock paintings and the brooding evil which dwells within.Each awakens to find an evil stone lying coldly next to them...The plot sounds really good,but the film is only decent.There are some gruesome death scenes like the spider sequence in the library,and the score is suitably creepy and menacing.7 out of 10-okay horror film!

Every once in a while Australia produces a good straight-up horror-movie (not really considering many fine ozploitation genre-mixtures with this statement). RAZORBACK, a fine monster-movie for example. KADAICHA, however, isn't really one of those excellent horror gems. The teenage inhabitants of one particular street in a suburban area get in deadly trouble when the spirit of an ancient Aboriginal voodoo-priest wants revenge. Aparantly the houses in that street were build on an Aboriginal burial ground (what else did you expect?). The spirit of the voodoo-priest manifests itself through animals. This flick is amusing at times and gets a little boring and pretty bad at others. A 'didgeridoo' seems to be a horrifying instrument, because it can be heard on the soundtrack every time something supposedly scary is about to happen. I'll give KADAICHA some extra points because it tries hard, and the death-by-spider scene was amusing. But you'll have to be in the mood for it when you watch this stuff, otherwise you might dismiss it as nonsensical crap.