Hunt for the Wilderpeople

 Year of Release: 2016

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump

Starring:  Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Adventure, comedy, drama

Troubled teenager Ricky Baker (Dennison) is constantly in and out of foster homes.  As a last ditch attempt, child services assign him to a couple who own a remote farm.  After a difficult start, Ricky eventually bonds with his new foster mother Bella (Wiata) but not so much with her cantankerous frontiersman husband Hec (Neill).  When Bella drops dead of natural causes, a grieving Ricky plunges into the bush to avoid being taken by child services.  Hec follows him, and the two embark on a life in the wilderness, as the target of a nationwide manhunt.    

As with the best of writer-director Taika Waititi's work this blends darkness and tragedy with warmth, hope and compassion along with laugh out loud comedy.  This film has added wilderness adventure.  It does take it's time to get going, but the constant quirky comedy of Waititi's world means that it never gets dull.  Julian Dennison is great as the streetwise but naive teen at the heart of the film, and there is real chemistry between him and Sam Neill's grizzled outdoorsman, who hides real heart and compassion deep down beneath a prickly, abrasive exterior.  Rachel House is hilarious as the child welfare officer who obsessively pursues Ricky, and compares herself to The Terminator.  Taika Waititi has a small role as the minister who conducts Bella's funeral service.  By turns funny, exciting and heartbreaking this film also has a point about those who don't fit into the world.  Ricky and Hec don't really have a place in the modern world, they just want to live on their own terms, but while Ricky can find a place for himself, it is harder for Hec, given his age and circumstances.  The two save each other in their own ways.  

  Julian Dennison and Sam Neill in Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Event Horizon

 Year of Release:  1997

Director:  Paul W. S. Anderson

Screenplay:  Philip Eisner

Starring:  Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Sean Pertwee, Jason Isaacs, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

In the year 2047, the rescue vessel Lois and Clark is on a mission to retrieve the experimental spacecraft Event Horizon which vanished on it's maiden voyage seven years previously and has suddenly reappeared above Neptune.  Upon investigation it turns out that the Event Horizon is intact, but the crew have been brutally massacred.  It soon becomes apparent that the Event Horizon's revolutionary new gravity drive which allows the ship to travel vast distances by using a sort of artificial black hole to bridge two points in space.  However, the ship has travelled further than was ever planned and has brought something back with it.

This gruesome blend of science-fiction with supernatural horror is an enjoyable slice of "B"-grade hokum.  very heavily influenced by Alien (1979), The Shining (1980) and Hellraiser (1987), as well as Don't Look Now (1973) and Solaris (1972).  The plentiful special effects haven't aged well, the storyline is very derivative and the dialogue is pretty cheesy, however it does have some impressive production design and strong performances from a solid cast.  The film had a difficult production history, was heavily cut by it's studio, and was a critical and commercial flop when it was first released in August 1997, however it has had something of a reappraisal since and is now a major cult film.  It's a consistently entertaining film, which moves quickly and never gets dull.  For some gory late night escapism, this really does the job.  

     Event Horizon

Daybreakers

Year: 2009
Directors: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
Screenplay: Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Sam Niell, Michael Dorman, Isabel Lucas
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre: Horror, science-fiction, action

Summary: By 2019 a plague has turned most of Earth's population into vampires. Those who are still human are hunted down for their blood or turned into new vampires. However, the human population has now dwindled to the point that the human race is virtually extinct, which would deprive the vampires of their food source. If a vampire goes for too long without human blood they begin to degenrate into a violent bat-like creature known as a "subsider". Edward Dalton (Hawke), who is sympathetic towards humans, is working towards finding a synthetic blood substitutewhich he hopes will allow vampires and humans to co-exist. However, his greedy boss Charles Bromley (Neill), intends for the synthetic blood to allow the human race just enough time to repopulate before he starts farming them again and selling the real blood for top dollar. After rescuing a group of humans from the police, Edward is contacted by Audrey (Karvan), leader of an undergound group of humans. Through her Edward meets Elvis (Dafoe) a man who accidentally stumbled upon a method for returning vampires to their living human states. The problem is whether the method can be duplicated and whether the vampires will accept it

Opinion: One of the most interesting elements in this blend of vampire horror and science-fiction action movie is it's depiction of a vampire world, complete with blood bags hooked up at the subway station coffee kiosk, windowless houses and shielded "sun-proof" cars, shot in muted colours where dull blues and greys predominate. The performances are good with Ethan Hawke engaging and sympathetic as the "good-guy" vampire and Willem Dafoe adding a lot of fun as the wisecracking Elvis. The action is well handled with a lot of exciting car chases, and plenty of explosive gore, and the whole thing keeps moving nicely.
This is one of those movies where it's best not to think about it too much after you've watched it because there are so many elements and explanations that just don't make much sense, but it will provide a fun hour and a half for action and horror fans.




Meetings of the Crossbow Appreciation Society tended towards the dull: Ethan Hawke, Claudia Karvan, Willem Dafoe and Vince Colosimo in Daybreakers