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Starring |
Jim Caviezel
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Claudia Karvan
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Directed By |
Jamie Blanks
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Audio
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Dolby Digital 5.1
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Visuals
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2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
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Running Time |
84 mins
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UK Release Date |
February 8, 2010
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Genre |
Drama, Thriller, Horror
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Our Rating |
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User Rating |
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It’s not so much a case of nature versus nurture as nature versus mankind in this remake of Colin Eggleston’s 1978 New Wave Australian horror. When unhappily married couple Peter and Carla (Caviezel and Karvan) embark for the Australian North Coast in a bid to mend their broken relationship, it’s not just the couple’s mutual animosity which works against them.
As the couple show an increasing disregard for their surroundings (chopping down trees, breaking bottles, running over kangaroos) it soon becomes clear some form of external force of nature is reacting to their presence. Are Peter and Carla’s marital problems finding an echo in their environment or is it simply a case of nature biting back?
Although this might sound a bit silly, the ecological angle does at least provide a nice variant on the usual psycho/supernatural peril threat resurrected for most horror films. The problem is that it has been done before. This is neither one of the good remakes which finds a new spin on the first film, nor one of the terrible ones which insults the memory of the original. This belongs to a third category which simply makes you wonder why they bothered.
This is not a scene by scene remake in the manner of Gus Van Sant’s Psycho but in places, it might as well be. Some scenes are reproduced almost verbatim. As with Van Sant’s film and to a lesser extent, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, director Blanks doesn’t bring enough new to the table to justify this remake’s existence. Caviezel is also on much less sympathetic form here than he was playing the generally likeable “Jesus” character in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
The bonus features, at any rate, are good. The Making of featurette is basically a run of commentary-free behind-the-scenes footage but the 40-minute Director’s Production Diary is much more revealing, as are the short interviews with the two leads, screenwriter De Roche, and Tobey Eggleston, the son of the director of the original film. Taming The Wild examines the animal training for the film, while the overlong deleted scene does at least contain a passable Christopher Walken impression from Caviezel. It should be noted, however, that the full title of the Behind the Scenes with Grant Page and Roger Ward Featurette contains a major plot spoiler in itself. Thankfully it’s not listed in full on the back but to be honest, if you’ve read this review to this point, you shouldn’t be renting or buying this anyway.
Overall Verdict: A pointless remake which adds nothing to the original. Even if you haven’t seen the first film, there’s still no point seeing this one instead.
Special Features:
Director’s Production Diary
Interview Gallery: Jim Caviezel, Claudia Karvan, Everett De Roche, Tobey Eggleston
Deleted Scene
Making of Featurette
Taming The Wild Featurette
Behind the Scenes with Grant Page and Roger Ward Featurette
Trailer Gallery
Reviewer: Chris Hallam
