Rating: C-
Dir: Ryan Coonan
Star: Tess Haubrich, Michael Biehn, Angie Milliken, Aaron Pedersen
a.k.a. The Red
Back in 2014, we screened Coonan’s short, Waterborne, at FearCon. Eleven years later, he has achieved his goal of turning it into a feature. It’s like seeing your child going out into the world and achieving something cool. Good job! Sadly, truth be told, the short is probably better. It’s a shame, because of all the countries which should have a robust When Animals Attack industry, it’s Australia, the land where everything wants to kill you. It’s been a bit intermittent; there was Razorback, some solid killer croc films, and Nature’s Grave, a remake of Long Weekend. But mostly, it has been people rather than animals that are the threat, such as Wolf Creek, Mad Max or Chopper.
This seeks to redress the balance, giving us an unstoppable killer kangaroo. Now, that may seem a stretch if all you know of them is Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (a show riffed on by the title). However, you may also have seen viral videos, which depict ‘roos as considerably more scary. They’re certainly big enough to be threatening and have the claws, on both hands and feet, to back it up. Fortunately, they generally just don’t care. Here, one does, and is shredding the residents in the outback town of Axehead. It is first reported by Schmitty (Biehn), though nobody believes him, even his niece, local police chief Maddie (Haubrich). As the bodies keep piling up though, she can’t deny something nasty is out back.
It makes a great trailer. Shame about the movie, which seems actively to be seeking means by which it can get in its own way. For example, there’s an extended subplot about Maddie living in the shadow of her late father, who was previously the chief, and died a hero. And another one concerning Schmitty’s relationship with his ex-wife, Donna (Milliken). Guess what? We don’t give a damn, especially when it’s presented in lieu of the expected marsupial mayhem. The first half is particularly guilty on this front, although bonus points are due for not killing Biehn off in the first five minutes, as Chris expected. While he’s not exactly an Australian, his character’s attitude fits into the setting well enough.
The other problem is the effects used to depict the killer zombie kangaroo. The practical and puppet work is fine; it’s the terrible CGI which is the equivalent of a kick to the midsection from Big Red. At least the energy kicks up, to a certain degree, in the second half, when Maddie leads an expedition in search of the monster. It then repays the favour, by coming into Axehead – and naturally, ending up at the town pub. There’s a certain lack of logic, in the ease with which it’s finally dispatched, before the contractually obliged coda, suggesting a sequel. If Coonan can go back to basics, and concentrate on the elements which made Waterborne a FearCon pick, we would still be down for it.