3/10
I love horror. I love practical fx. I did not like this movie.
4 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
From its weak premise, to the unnecessary non-linear way the movie unfolds, to just how ugly this movie is in general. I don't mean the violence. I was well prepared for the violence, and movies like Terrifier 2 were more brutal than this. I mean how every set that wasn't out in the desert made you want to take a shower after looking at it.

I live in the southern US and I know what it's like to be stereotyped in a movie. We're depicted as ignorant bumpkins who never seem to have indoor air conditioning, and do nothing but hunting, fishing, fighting, and drinking beer. This movie adds to the ongoing Australian trope that anyone out there can and will kill you, and they all seem to be related. This movie had the nerve to steal the ending from Eden Lake, not once, but twice in the same movie! (SPOILER FOR EDEN LAKE. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, GO WATCH THAT INSTEAD) It was silly and predictable the FIRST time the main character inadvertently brought a relative of the man he killed to that isolated house. The second and final time was absolutely stupid. The main character, after walking through the desert for a couple of days with no eyes, finally stumbles upon a road, and eventually a man in a truck. What does the man do when he sees someone covered in blood, begging for help? Well, he goes back to that same gd house, of course. Because that man is the father of the dead guy from the beginning, and the other dead guy the eyeless man was somehow able to find from miles away, despite having zero eyes.

This movie is ridiculous, and just expects its audience to buy into the most unbelievable stuff, over and over. At one point, main character is nailed by his hands to the wall by the older brother. He eventually falls, which further rips his hands open. Ten minutes later, he's digging his own grave with absolutely no difficulty. I can't use a shovel if my hands are mildly blistered. But this guy's out there digging a hole deeper than his height, after having been crucified like jesus for hours, up until a few minutes before the scene.

The girlfriend. What a pointless character. They could have cut her completely out, and nothing would have changed. Oh wait. She was only there to give the main character a reason to have the brother drive him to the house where it all happened, rather than drive him to the hospital. You see her singing in a bar, looking at him as if they are in a Hallmark movie. No dialogue. When you see her again, they're sleeping together, and talking about making a drug deal. What? We don't even know this girlfriend. We're never given a chance. She goes from having to wear a bag over her head along with the main character, so the guy can pick up the drugs with them, to being knocked down, and dying from a brain injury. This is the catalyst that drives the entire plot, and it's just some random girl he met in a bar.

Final complaint: The grunting, crying, moaning, and attempts to end his own life by the main character had to have taken up at least 15 minutes of this movie's run time. They made an hour and a half long movie feel as if it were three hours long.
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