Needle

Plot

A killer uses an 18th century machine with supernatural powers to terrorize students at a college.

Cast

Travis "Vikings/Warcraft Movie" Fimmel and John "Wolf Creek" Jarratt star.

Verdict

It wasn't long after this that Australia began knocking it out of the park, great movie after great movie and then it ended as swiftly as it began. My Top 10 Australian movies list is quite impressive and I knew going in that Needle would be unlikely to get on it, and I was right.

It has an interesting enough premise, a remote method of killing such as Death Note but using an antiquated machine. As you can imagine it's your standard formula of introduce the 20 somethings, pick them off one by one and reveal the "Whodunnit" at the end. The trouble is the journey isn't fantastic, it's rather uninspired, it's boring and certain elements left me scratching my head as they made little sense and the rules of the box were a tad inconsistent.

I've seen worse Australian films, but this is one that's highly forgettable which is a shame as the potential was certainly there.

Rants

I've mentioned Death Note so of course have to say it. The Japanese delivered us the Death Note anime and it was a masterpiece, then they hit us with a live action television series of it and it surprisingly really good! Then they gave us 5 live action movies and they varied from very good to excellent. What happened next? That's right boys and girls the Americans came along and decided to give it a go and as is often the case it's as if the writer was given a 10 second presentation on what Death Note is and made a movie off the back of that. It's one of those "It didn't happen" movies which I try and deny the existence of such as the upcoming The Crow remake or Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). For shame Netflix, for shame!

The Good

Premise isn't awful Some visuals are quite good

The Bad

Totally forgettable Bland cast Inconsistent rules of the box Doesn't exactly flow.

When a student, Ben, inherit a strange box from his dead father he seeks help from friends and from one teacher to find out more about the box. Suddenly his friends start to die mysteriously.

Nice killings voodoo style, but some times the sequence of the story was strange and the acting in my opinion is not that good. On the beginning my suspicions about the killer went in a very different way, and that´s a good thing , you want to get surprised when you watch a movie..

My opinion it´s an ok movie.

Some college kid inherits a mysterious box. He checks with specialists and discovers that it's quite valuable and some people are interested in it. It also was used in the past for magic acts.

When the kid's creepy brother appears, with whom he hasn't spoken for years, the box mysteriously disappears. And now, one by one his friends start dying in brutal, gory, and bizarre ways. One of them for example, has his limbs torn and broken without any apparent cause. But we do know what is happening. The killer is using the box, photographs of the victims, blood and wax to create a tiny voodoo doll to dismember and poke with needles.

The brother is also coincidentally a crime scene photographer who for some reason can't wipe a cocky smile off his face no matter what gory scene he's called to.

The kid's friends include a bunch of very attractive girls, one which is interested in him but he's rather shy. Eventually the kid and his brother by chance run into the killer and they find out why the killer is doing it.

Needle has an interesting premise, a good cast, is very gory, and it's frankly quite endearing to see Australians dealing with each other, which is a much more human and kind way than obnoxious bickering American movie characters. In particular the relationship between the kid and his love interest is well done. This movie is quite the opposite of American horror that often is nasty and mean spirited but lacks gore or violence. This movie is good-natured and filled with good people but it sure is gory. Nudity is sorely lacking and so is perhaps a villain, after all you really don't see or know much about him till the very end. The idea of a voodoo doll-creating machine is also pretty interesting. The death scenes are excellent. Overall a recommended horror movie that has an interesting way of blending violence and gore with a fairly gentle tone.

I watched most of the horrors at Screamfest and I saw this with my BFFs. I was impressed with the look of Needle...visually its pretty much perfect...definitely not a film for the hardcore gorehounds, as there isn't much blood, instead there are some good scares with some cool spfx...two of the kills were impressive.

I really enjoyed this film for two main reasons, firstly it uses a new killing device/machine which i've never seen in a horror film before and secondly because of the great acting. I have seen Travis Fimmel in the Beast and he's way better in Needle...the other actors are great too.

My ratings are as follows;

Story - 8/10 Acting - 8/10 Visual - 9/10 Efx - 7/10 Score - 7/10 Blood & gore - 6/10

I guess overall I'd give it an 8.

Definitely worth seeing, I can't wait for the DVD!

It's films like Needle that have driven me to become a genre based filmmaker. While I'm only in my final year of film school I've watched quite literally 100's of films in this genre! I had the opportunity to view Needle at a private screening earlier this year, at first I thought it was another run of the mill teens die movie which it still is, however it was first class in the way that they die, it actually made me go back to my script that I'm writing and look at my own killer and if there are ways I could be more original and creative.

Overall the script was nicely presented on screen however some of the acting in stages seemed underdone (above comment when Travis' character doesn't seemed phased about the gruesome death of someone he knows) and when the killer is revealed seems slightly overacted by the actor (still haven't been able to work out if this is the result of the script, actor or director).

However highly entertaining and refreshing, it showed me there is still plenty of life left in the genre that I love and can't wait to direct!