Come and Get Me is a film that is being sold as "Australia's sickest indie horror venture". Unfortunately, the only thing sick about it is the fact that it ever got made in the first place.
This is Director Chris Suns first feature film, and thats just fine. In absolutely no way would I expect a directors very first movie to be a shining beacon of excellence. But there's only so much slack I'm willing to cut for amateur projects before they transcend "beginners charm" and become "inexcusable bullcrap".
The script is insultingly clichéd and horribly anorexic, I wouldn't be surprised if it was written in a fifteen minute sit on the toilet. It is riddled with the most painfully cheesy diolauge you've ever heard, and does absolutely NOTHING in the way of character development. All you know about the killers Brett and Johnny (who are supposed to be the two most interesting characters) is that they are angry. And then they are angry. And then they are angry. And then the movie ends. You never get any indication as to why they are psychotic, your just supposed to take it on face value that they are and it doesn't work. The actors are evidently not bad actors at all, but they haven't been given anything interesting to say or do so they come off boring. And a small budget is absolutely no excuse for crummy scripts. Writing comes from the mind, and thats free. Dog Soldiers was done on a budget not much bigger than this and it turned out to be one of the most excellent horror movies of its decade.
Whoever edited CAGM needs to be slapped across the face, hard. At one point towards the end, where all the characters are supposed to be lost in the endless bush, you can PLAINLY see a big shiny 4WD in the background, not five feet away from the actors. Not long before that, a bloody HOUSE with its lights on is clearly visible in the background. CONSISTENCY IS NICE!
I don't care what your budget is or whether this is your first movie or not, you don't leave mistakes like that in the footage and then just release it anyway and expect the audience to overlook everything. It's insulting to our intelligence and it makes you look like a lazy moron.
The movie "tries" to ape the gut wrenching tension of other, better gore-hound flicks like The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel, but with the awful camera work and worse diolauge, it fails in every account.
The camera work is shoddy, the lighting is usually too dark to see anything, but the bloody sound is worst of all. The whole selling point of the movie is supposed to be its gore, but as soon as an actual kill scene starts, Chris Sun has thought it appropriate to drown it all out with douchey rock music. I'm sorry is this supposed to be cool or something? because it looks like a 13 year old Youtubers attempt at cool. I swear to god I heard the same goddamn background song at least three times during the film, all at points that were supposed to be set hours apart. Lazy.
Come and Get Me is a movie that carries the stink of the auteur, a pet project made for the creators sake rather than anyone else. It just so happens that in this case, the creator seems to be a complete jackass with no clue as to what makes compelling viewing, good writing, or decent directing. A massive fail in every conceivable way.
Avoid this movie like it will give you rectal cancer.
This is Director Chris Suns first feature film, and thats just fine. In absolutely no way would I expect a directors very first movie to be a shining beacon of excellence. But there's only so much slack I'm willing to cut for amateur projects before they transcend "beginners charm" and become "inexcusable bullcrap".
The script is insultingly clichéd and horribly anorexic, I wouldn't be surprised if it was written in a fifteen minute sit on the toilet. It is riddled with the most painfully cheesy diolauge you've ever heard, and does absolutely NOTHING in the way of character development. All you know about the killers Brett and Johnny (who are supposed to be the two most interesting characters) is that they are angry. And then they are angry. And then they are angry. And then the movie ends. You never get any indication as to why they are psychotic, your just supposed to take it on face value that they are and it doesn't work. The actors are evidently not bad actors at all, but they haven't been given anything interesting to say or do so they come off boring. And a small budget is absolutely no excuse for crummy scripts. Writing comes from the mind, and thats free. Dog Soldiers was done on a budget not much bigger than this and it turned out to be one of the most excellent horror movies of its decade.
Whoever edited CAGM needs to be slapped across the face, hard. At one point towards the end, where all the characters are supposed to be lost in the endless bush, you can PLAINLY see a big shiny 4WD in the background, not five feet away from the actors. Not long before that, a bloody HOUSE with its lights on is clearly visible in the background. CONSISTENCY IS NICE!
I don't care what your budget is or whether this is your first movie or not, you don't leave mistakes like that in the footage and then just release it anyway and expect the audience to overlook everything. It's insulting to our intelligence and it makes you look like a lazy moron.
The movie "tries" to ape the gut wrenching tension of other, better gore-hound flicks like The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel, but with the awful camera work and worse diolauge, it fails in every account.
The camera work is shoddy, the lighting is usually too dark to see anything, but the bloody sound is worst of all. The whole selling point of the movie is supposed to be its gore, but as soon as an actual kill scene starts, Chris Sun has thought it appropriate to drown it all out with douchey rock music. I'm sorry is this supposed to be cool or something? because it looks like a 13 year old Youtubers attempt at cool. I swear to god I heard the same goddamn background song at least three times during the film, all at points that were supposed to be set hours apart. Lazy.
Come and Get Me is a movie that carries the stink of the auteur, a pet project made for the creators sake rather than anyone else. It just so happens that in this case, the creator seems to be a complete jackass with no clue as to what makes compelling viewing, good writing, or decent directing. A massive fail in every conceivable way.
Avoid this movie like it will give you rectal cancer.