My second foray into Elite's "Aussie Horror 2" box set is a slightly better film than my first experience, Voyage Into Fear. That being said, because Voyage was so terrible, it doesn't take a whole lot to be good in comparison. This time, however, we are plagued with dream sequences instead of flashbacks which are only slightly less annoying. I don't know what it is with this batch of Aussie movies but it seems to me that every convention of filmmaking that I can't stand is being used to a large degree in these films. With my luck, the other films will be loaded with CGI and voiceover to really get me riled up.

Penny Cook stars as Cathy Thornton, a doctor who is plagued with visions after a native woman dies on her operating table. It seems as though there is an ancient curse involved as well as a burial ground, Cathy's archaeologist father, and a shipload of nutty ghost whalers. Cathy tries to figure out where her nightmarish images are coming from and is eventually led to the Australian coast, some dead seals, and a lighthouse. Along the way, she fights with her asshole boyfriend, has a few run-ins with her bored looking father, and has a bath in a really creepy hotel but manages to avoid exposing her flesh to the camera. We also learn about how a band of marauding fishermen massacred an ancient tribe but I had a bit of trouble tying it all together.

This movie looks pretty good and takes advantage of the beautiful scenery of the Australian coastline. There are a number of impressive aerial shots and the backdrops are breathtaking. We also are treated to a few creative camera moves with one in particular coming to mind that crosses from the reality of a hospital room into a nightmare sequence in a cave in a single shot. This was an impressive setup that I rewound a few times to see again but it lost its impact a bit by the fact that, like many of the other nightmare scenes, it was lit like a cheap haunted house at a roadside amusement park. Director Mario Andreacchio doesn't seem to be going for scares in these sequences even though he should be. From a storytelling perspective, the plot is a bit of a mess and seems to have trouble moving ahead. By the end of the film, I felt no more closer to a conclusion than I did after the opening narrative scroll. It is one of those movies where in the final few minutes I was wondering to myself what the writers were trying to achieve with the script and what the director was trying to convey to the viewer. It made me think about the responsibility of the director to get his vision across onscreen and I wondered if this was really what Andreacchio was wanting us to see. The only thing that kept me interested was the performance from Penny Cook but she was given little to work with and did what she could with an unsatisfying script.

The one thing that I did find slightly memorable about this film was the gang of crazy whalers led by a dude who looks like Mick Fleetwood's insane brother and who carries around a weapon that resembles a chrome hockey stick. He is joined by a bald dude who is always laughing which I suppose is done to help sell the fact that these guys are out of control in their scariness. It didn't really have that effect but it made an impression nonetheless. Another notable thing about this flick was a cemetery scene where the rain machines seem to be malfunctioning as it goes from rain to clear and back again a couple of times with no explanation. Even the actors look a bit confused in this scene. While this is all mildly amusing, it is not a reason to check out this movie. You can do much better. (Josh Pasnak, 7/12/07)

Directed By: Mario Andreacchio.
Written By: Mario Andreacchio, Rob George, Stephanie McCarthy.

Starring: Arthur Dignam, Penny Cook, Gary Sweet, Laurence Clifford.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: Pretty average looking for a DVD release. It made me feel like I was watching an old 80's movie at 3 am on cable TV.

Extras: All we get is a five question trivia game. I scored three so I guess I was kind of paying attention.