The debut feature from South Australian filmmaker Alex Frayne is an intriguing, atmospheric if not confusing film. It really doesn’ fit so readily into genres, purposely so, to the extent that whenever it seems to be getting comfortable and you have it pegged as a psychological thriller, a horror, or a heartfelt coming to terms with your past tale, Frayne pushes it off into another direction. The setup is simple enough, after the death of his uncle, John, his partner and young child head to the country to claim a small shack left to them in the will. However there are secrets lurking in John’ childhood home, and once there he resists leaving as his behavior changes and more and more about his past begins to unravel. The cinematography is gorgeous, with some highly stylistic, almost at times experimental shots, and the acting is also great, in the main understated and finely honed. The problem seems to be that Frayne doesn’ seem entirely sure what he’ working towards here. Midway we suddenly inexplicably enter the mind of what was until then an extraneous character, which serves the purpose of explaining his actions but seems to shatter the ambiguous meditative path that the film seemed to traveling on prior. Then there’ split screen, again for no discernible reason and then reams and reams of spoken plot exposition that is at odds with the gradual release of information that was done so well earlier. There’ definitely something interesting here, however it’s not without its flaws. And though there’ no elevators of blood, it’s impossible not to be reminded of the Shining – if it was shot in rural South Australia, yet the filmmakers seem content to simply ignore their predecessor, which again is probably not advisable. It is however different to pretty much everything made in Australia in recent years
Extra Features:
Four short films from Frayne, a doco about the difficulty of life on the land moving on, some sort of futuristic corporate nightmare, and some more experimental work.
Bob Baker Fish
