Heath Davis's Locusts begins with city slicker tech entrepreneur Ryan (Ben Geurens) returning to his rundown rural hometown Serenity Valley after 20 years away, for the funeral of his estranged father. After reuniting with his alcoholic, ex-con brother Tyson (Nathaniel Dean), Ryan soon runs afoul of a gang of amped-up local hoodlums who claim that he is now to be held responsible for the payment of his father's debt of $100000 to be settled within 2 days, or Tyson will die.
Amazingly the film's storyline is quite similar to Robert Connolly's The Dry with Eric Band, that was released in 2020. The thing is, if you've seen both, you'll know that The Dry is a far superior movie.
Both films essentially have the same narrative premise, set in almost similar geographic locations. Both feature some very solid acting from both casts, along with some outstanding cinematography. The differentiation comes about due to The Dry having a much more carefully - written screenplay and better directorial choices made by Connolly in putting his film together.
Screenwriter/Producer Angus Watt's script too often resorts to caricatures, rather than developing fleshed out characters. Why for example is just about every town resident Ryan meets so aggressive, especially to a former community member? This includes ex - girlfriend Isabella, who thankfully later changes her tune towards Ryan. It couldn't be an Ozploitation film without having every character wandering around either drunk or half - plastered and of course the local constabulary is corrupt and therefore completely unhelpful to Ryan.
A core storyline involves Ryan trying to work out the mystery as to why his albeit abusive father, died owing money and leaving no assets (save for a shiny, dark, muscle car). But each time we begin to be drip fed some much needed exposition during an exchange of dialogue, Director Davis decides to fill the soundtrack with some entirely unneeded song, drowning out much of the dialogue. It does get kind of infuriating when it happens repeatedly.
As mentioned on this forum by others, it also doesn't make much sense that this dead - end town sports a high end night club out in the middle of nowhere, that according to the spoken word in the film makes thousands of dollars a night, from a bunch of supposedly unemployed patrons. The third act features a couple of reveals, that just about anyone with half a brain, can see coming.
By virtue of a close comparison with The Dry, Locusts ends up definitely being one of those films, you can say unequivocally, had a good underlying concept and working parts, but should have ended up better than it ends up being, when assembling the film in post production and editing.
Amazingly the film's storyline is quite similar to Robert Connolly's The Dry with Eric Band, that was released in 2020. The thing is, if you've seen both, you'll know that The Dry is a far superior movie.
Both films essentially have the same narrative premise, set in almost similar geographic locations. Both feature some very solid acting from both casts, along with some outstanding cinematography. The differentiation comes about due to The Dry having a much more carefully - written screenplay and better directorial choices made by Connolly in putting his film together.
Screenwriter/Producer Angus Watt's script too often resorts to caricatures, rather than developing fleshed out characters. Why for example is just about every town resident Ryan meets so aggressive, especially to a former community member? This includes ex - girlfriend Isabella, who thankfully later changes her tune towards Ryan. It couldn't be an Ozploitation film without having every character wandering around either drunk or half - plastered and of course the local constabulary is corrupt and therefore completely unhelpful to Ryan.
A core storyline involves Ryan trying to work out the mystery as to why his albeit abusive father, died owing money and leaving no assets (save for a shiny, dark, muscle car). But each time we begin to be drip fed some much needed exposition during an exchange of dialogue, Director Davis decides to fill the soundtrack with some entirely unneeded song, drowning out much of the dialogue. It does get kind of infuriating when it happens repeatedly.
As mentioned on this forum by others, it also doesn't make much sense that this dead - end town sports a high end night club out in the middle of nowhere, that according to the spoken word in the film makes thousands of dollars a night, from a bunch of supposedly unemployed patrons. The third act features a couple of reveals, that just about anyone with half a brain, can see coming.
By virtue of a close comparison with The Dry, Locusts ends up definitely being one of those films, you can say unequivocally, had a good underlying concept and working parts, but should have ended up better than it ends up being, when assembling the film in post production and editing.