The Movie: Dark Place
The Directors: Kodie Bedford, Perun Bonser, Rob Braslin, Liam Phillips, Bjorn Stewart
The Cast: Tasia Zalar, Katherine Beckett, Luka May Glynn-Cole, Leonie Whyman and Clarence Ryan
The Story: Australian genre cinema takes an exciting leap forward with a quintet of tales that approach postcolonial Indigenous history through the lenses of horror and fantasy, all made by filmmakers of Aboriginal origin.
The Review:
First and foremost, this is one of the better horror anthologies you will find. What makes this Australian genre anthology so special is that each segment was written and directed by Aboriginal film makers and each tackles the effects of colonization in very unique ways. While everything is rooted within the horror genre, the directors do drift into other territories like the final segment, Bjorn Stewart's Killer Native, which leans heavily into comedy by poking fun at the colonial mindset of entitlement and superiority.
Other topics range from human trafficking to vampires and each will scare you in their own special way. This is an important piece of film making not only because of the cultural and historical relevance, it's also really good work across the board. The anthology format fits the genre really well and I would love to see more projects like this with film makers from around the world whose voices otherwise would not have a chance to be heard.
Dark Place is an official selection of the 2019 Hawaii International Film Festival.
To keep track of all my reviews and festival coverage please go to: TwoOhSix at HIFF 2019.
Check out the brand new TwoOhSix.com Podcast!
No comments:
Post a Comment