Defenceless: A Blood Symphony

Nope. The arty pretentiousness of this movie does not make it an original horror film. Neither does its brutality (much of it poorly simulated) make it a edgy art film. But the combination of the two certainly makes it something - pure drudgery. This murder/revenge drama strains to be unique offering nothing more on its soundtrack than a musical score and some rather awkwardly dubbed screams. A prolonged and arduous torture sequence might stir some guilty giddy pleasure in those fond of exploitation, but by the time it occurs, it is likely such viewers will have long given up on watching. And those who might have appreciated its deliberate pace and elongated romance scenes are likely to be turned off by the sudden burst of graphic violence. Defenders of the film might argue that Defenceless does not play by the standards that have been set by horror films of the past and therefore is to be appreciated for being different. But originality is not a sufficient substitute for a well crafted drama.

I really wanted to like "Defenceless" but it's a movie that somehow isn't a sum of its parts. While the plot is relatively straightforward, the film's strength should come from its stylistic approach. This is a movie without dialogue - the powerful imagery conveys the tale, accompanied by a largely classical soundtrack.

For gorehounds, there is some over-the-top violence. As with Savage's earlier "Marauders", some of this is taboo breaking but thankfully the more controversial deaths are off-screen.

The beautiful Susanne Hausschmid is excellent as the lead, "The Woman". Without going into too much detail, this is a character who has to undergo a fair amount of torment, both physical and mental, during the course of the film. Hausschmid conveys what's going on in her mind brilliantly.

Yet, despite its strengths, I was left feeling a tad empty after watching "Defenceless". I've not been able to warm to Savage's style.

7 out of 10. Missing a certain something but an interesting exercise in cinema.

This "silent" feature (there is an amazing soundtrack, but there is not one word of dialogue) from director Savage (who also co-produced, wrote, photographed and edited) is a huge surprise and clearly his most personal, uncompromising work.

Though it's a revenge yarn, there's not a single other movie I can compare it to.

It's beautifully photographed (by Savage himself) and walks a very delicate line between art-house, exploitation and humanistic drama. The combination, which shouldn't work on paper, works beautifully here because of the director's sheer forcefulness of vision.

Susanne Hauscchmid is The Woman, a mother and environmental campaigner whose life is destroyed by the brutal actions of property developers. Her performance, virtually mute, is certainly one of the year's best and it's interesting to know that Hausschmid also produced the film with Savage and a tiny crew.

Child actor Bethany Fisher also delivers a superb performance as a young girl who befriends the battered Woman in a portion of the film that feels unlike anything the director has attempted before. It must be said that the director's obsession with the ocean, cemeteries and broken dolls is amped right up in this confronting but highly satisfying fantasy. Also amped up is the director's take-no-prisoners approach to the staging of grotesque but cinematic ally justified sexual violence. Additionally, one scene of self-mutilation involving breast slicing will be quite beyond the pale for most viewers.

The film won Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Actress at the recent Melbourne Underground Film Festival. It's a remarkable achievement for sustaining its dialogue-free structure over ninety-eight minutes and re-inventing a long-lost cinematic tradition.

But be warned: Its staggering beauty is contrasted with equally staggering brutality and horror.

Savage's best so far.

Art for arts sake. It's an original film that's weird and sexy and spooky. Mark Savage knows how to make a feature. I like that he pushes the envelope.

Sadly this film left me a little disappointed. It was quite tame with regards to violence and the supposed quotes stating it was nasty were far from the truth imo.

Not much is seen at all.

One woman is supoosedly (you don't see amything) stabbed in the privates with a knife and theres zero blood!? And she's beaten in the face (out of shot again) with a baton and when next see her face it has slightly purple blemishes on her face and no blood! Poor.

The lead actress is gorgeous so that helps a lot and she can act until directed to walk like filled her pants after spending 9 months in the sea!? Wah!?

Which is never explained. (A remnant of what the movie was going to be.....called The Deep).

The young director (24 at the time I believe) appeared very restrained with what he showed for a supposed uncut and vicious revenge film ......I guess the final scene although badly choreographed throughout did have one gory bit and partly made up for it .

Shame wasn't more though, felt restrained, especially the torture of the pedophile.

The lack of dialogue throughout was a good move. Less an artistic statement than a careful way to not show the low level of acting. (Even if they say otherwise)

Seems they had no one doing any make up FX throughout. Later in the film they must have had a whip around and bought some fake blood and chicken fillets so that was used more and helped a little.

Then it gets surreal.

Dolls heads on sticks. Random girls finding junk on beach finds lead actress and immediately hits her with a branch for some unknown reason? Ha ha. I think to see if alive. Flesh eating. Sleeping underwater.

Stock music is not used well and distracts at times. Not as emotional as they believed it was. Especially the classical parts.

Lot of long drawn out padded scenes, strange costumes.

Some artistically shot scenes seem out of place.

For a first real film I guess its forgivable.

Watch if nothing else on.

Did I mention the lead actress was gorgeous? Ha ha.