I love horror flicks, I love Australian horror flicks even more. I didn't know going into this that it was Australian which is probably better because I was thoroughly disappointed. It wasn't an entire waste, there were some decent performances and some really good scenes but it was just missing something. It felt empty a lot of the time, and it just seemed to have no real direction. The film starts us off by introducing the characters, their background and basically all their various malfunctions, and the tie in to the main story. I can't really say where the story goes wrong but by the time our lovely villainess Lola has kidnapped her love interest things have started to go awry. The gore is forced and pointless, the twists and turn in the story are silly and it just was really poorly told I though.
Robin McLeavy plays our very demented Lola. You never know anything about her really, why she is demented and the back story behind her and her father and "bright eyes." McLeavy does a good job, there's no doubt she's demented but she really overplays it. Her role is very campy and certainly darkly comedic but I prefer my horror to be twisted not comedic. Xavier Samuel plays her twisted object of affection. Samuel is good but not great. He really milks the only character arc he's given which is the death of his father and how it sent him spiralling. Once he finally gets away from Lola and exacts his revenge, he's not really believable as a sudden hero. John Brumpton is "Daddy", that is Lola's father. He gives a really good performance and I think I would have rather seen him as the main villain of the story but he is really carrying out Lola's will because of a disturbing fascination with her. And I mention again that there is no back story given on Brumpton's "Daddy" character which is really unfortunate. Supporting cast includes Richard Wilson, Jessica McNamee, and Victoria Thaine. They're all good but not great...a pattern for this film.
I knew right away this would be writer and director's Sean Byrne's first feature film. It feels very amateur. I'm a little surprised that people, both reviewers and people I know, speak so highly of this movie. It's not that its really awful, its just sort of "meh." It never takes off, it never impresses and it leaves you feeling like you wanted something so much more. There were a couple of really powerfully shot scenes at the end (Lola angrily strolling up the desolate highway in her pink Prom dress and the subsequent scene after she's been run down by the car of her still coming after them in an homage to 80's horror as she is mangled and bent out of shape.) I just think more time could have been given to a much better story and less time worried about ensuring they got right to the torture and horror. Without giving too much away the knives in the feet were a nice touch and the lobotomy technique was certainly an interesting idea but there was no depth, no substance to really make this one count. Completely skippable. 5/10
Robin McLeavy plays our very demented Lola. You never know anything about her really, why she is demented and the back story behind her and her father and "bright eyes." McLeavy does a good job, there's no doubt she's demented but she really overplays it. Her role is very campy and certainly darkly comedic but I prefer my horror to be twisted not comedic. Xavier Samuel plays her twisted object of affection. Samuel is good but not great. He really milks the only character arc he's given which is the death of his father and how it sent him spiralling. Once he finally gets away from Lola and exacts his revenge, he's not really believable as a sudden hero. John Brumpton is "Daddy", that is Lola's father. He gives a really good performance and I think I would have rather seen him as the main villain of the story but he is really carrying out Lola's will because of a disturbing fascination with her. And I mention again that there is no back story given on Brumpton's "Daddy" character which is really unfortunate. Supporting cast includes Richard Wilson, Jessica McNamee, and Victoria Thaine. They're all good but not great...a pattern for this film.
I knew right away this would be writer and director's Sean Byrne's first feature film. It feels very amateur. I'm a little surprised that people, both reviewers and people I know, speak so highly of this movie. It's not that its really awful, its just sort of "meh." It never takes off, it never impresses and it leaves you feeling like you wanted something so much more. There were a couple of really powerfully shot scenes at the end (Lola angrily strolling up the desolate highway in her pink Prom dress and the subsequent scene after she's been run down by the car of her still coming after them in an homage to 80's horror as she is mangled and bent out of shape.) I just think more time could have been given to a much better story and less time worried about ensuring they got right to the torture and horror. Without giving too much away the knives in the feet were a nice touch and the lobotomy technique was certainly an interesting idea but there was no depth, no substance to really make this one count. Completely skippable. 5/10