Kadaicha

Nowhere can cinema claim a monopoly on tried and true horror tropes: a cast of teen characters, including a musician, a nerd, a randy couple, and so on; a curse on land held sacred by indigenous people, which was subsequently developed by white people; an onslaught of violent death for those teens, living on that developed land; black magic, an even darker local history, capitalist greed, and so on. 'Kadaicha' is very upfront about all of this, and the formula is so intact that, not necessarily through any fault of this title, there are no thrills or surprises to be had - unless, perhaps, you've never seen any similar title before, which would be impressive indeed. By all means, this 1988 flick is still enjoyable in and of itself for those who appreciate genre fare for more than just the visceral reactions they may inspire - just don't go expecting a revelation.

This may not be breaking any ground, but it's still well made. The cast give earnest, commendable performances, and I find no faults in the writing that imparts a complete, duly compelling story, with some welcome little details. There's a nice bit of variety in the death scenes, and all the stunts, practical effects, and special makeup look terrific. Bolstered by Peter Westheimer's music, the picture is even able to manifest a measure of uneasy atmosphere, and a couple scenes are especially striking (such as Gail in the bathroom). The filming locations are fantastic, and the art direction is nice; between James Bogle's direction and Stephen F. Windon's cinematography, 'Kadaicha' is shot well. Really, this is well made all around, and even as the tale walks a familiar path there are no especial flaws here - save, perhaps, for that the one thing that the feature can't do is achieve a spark of vitality to make any of the course of events strike a major chord. It's fun, but kind of flat.

Very simply, what it comes down to is that for anyone who has spent any amount of time exploring the horror genre, we've seen this film before. It's still a suitably good time, but there's no reason to go out of our way for it, and it's best left as something fairly light for a lazy day. I admire the work that all involved put into it, and I'm glad I watched it; I just don't anticipate ever feeling the need to do so again, and I wish this carried itself with more vibrant energy. Ah well. Not every flick needs to be a revelation, and this is decent enough as it is.

Every once in a while Australia produces a good straight-up horror-movie (not really considering many fine ozploitation genre-mixtures with this statement). RAZORBACK, a fine monster-movie for example. KADAICHA, however, isn't really one of those excellent horror gems. The teenage inhabitants of one particular street in a suburban area get in deadly trouble when the spirit of an ancient Aboriginal voodoo-priest wants revenge. Aparantly the houses in that street were build on an Aboriginal burial ground (what else did you expect?). The spirit of the voodoo-priest manifests itself through animals. This flick is amusing at times and gets a little boring and pretty bad at others. A 'didgeridoo' seems to be a horrifying instrument, because it can be heard on the soundtrack every time something supposedly scary is about to happen. I'll give KADAICHA some extra points because it tries hard, and the death-by-spider scene was amusing. But you'll have to be in the mood for it when you watch this stuff, otherwise you might dismiss it as nonsensical crap.

Australian horror Kadaicha is a little bit Poltergeist and a little bit A Nightmare on Elm Street, but - and this probably goes without saying - it is not as good as either of those classics.

The film opens as a teenage girl wakes from a nightmare to find a strange crystal in her hand. At Kangaloola High, her teacher identifies the stone as a Kadaicha, which was given by Aboriginal shamen to people condemned to die; sure enough, the girl is found dead soon after, seemingly attacked by a wild animal. Other students share similar inexplicable fates, leaving Gail Sorensen (Zoe Carides) to try and find out how to stop the curse before she becomes the latest victim.

It eventually transpires that the Kangaloola estate was constructed on the site of an ancient Aboriginal burial ground (that old chestnut), Gail's father, the developer, having ignored the discovery while building was in progress. This lack of originality is matched by the lack of suspense and absence of genuine horror, the death scenes being rather unimaginative and light on gore (if the film had matched the creativity of A Nightmare on Elm Street's inventive kills, it would have been a lot more memorable).

The rushed and underwhelming finale sees Gail recruiting a local Aboriginal magic man to fight the power of the Kadaicha in an unremarkable battle of good against evil.

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

Australia's answer to the first two POLTERGEIST films with a couple teaspoons of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Now give it a stir. You get the same sort of supernatural story, pinching plot details here and there (damn those greedy building developers), as the outskirts of suburbia meets Indigenous dreamtime horror. A group teenagers living on the same street in a suburban housing development find themselves haunted by the spirit of a Kadaicha Man (an elder aboriginal witchdoctor) through their dreams, which when they awake, they are in possession of an ancient crystal stone. This souvenir symbolizes that they are targeted for death.

To begin teenagers are killed off one by one in what looks like freak accidents caused by dangerous wildlife (and the body count is very small), while minimalistic in execution with its tame use of cutaways and aftermath mutilation; there's a charm to these coarse attacks and decent effects. Outside the slightly eerie first death, I thought remaining lot were silly. Still the natural sound design along with the piercing didgeridoo / synth score do a better job implementing the uneasy atmospherics around the thrills.

Obvious plot tropes are used to advance the story, engineer the threat and to keep you invested, yet for the majority of the time these docile characters seem less concern in trying to figure out how not to become the next victim. Some of their actions are questionable, even their own state of mind when they begin dropping like flies. Then at the backend the material rushes through and decides to throw out the overt shocks, changing its M.O to ghostly apparitions, poltergeist activity and possession leading to a flimsy power play over the life of the final girl. It's everything, but the kitchen sink... done on the cheap. Stereotypical performances don't hurt and the script might not be the greatest, but you get amusing lines like this;

"A dog savage enough to kill a teenage girl. A spider with the fasted venom in history and now a giant eel that thinks it's a boa constrictor. What... the hell... is going... on?????"

The delivery of the line was just priceless. Actually a lot of the choice dialogues, and sincere banter, especially between the coppers got a laugh from me.

Not the best Ozploitation had to offer, quite clunky, but you could do a lot worse.

I saw this film once late at night when it was played on television. It really isn't at all good, and I don't recommend it, but for me it was one of those films with a really strange feel about it. I can't remember too much of the film because I saw it so long ago but it had a strange feel about it which I enjoyed.

All I can remember of the plot is that if you find this Aboriginal stone on your pillow when you wake up, you are cursed and will die. Now, I think the reason for this is that these people live in an area over sacred Aboriginal ground, and the Aborigines have cursed the people who live there. Totally absurd I know, but there are a few gruesome deaths, one nasty one with a spider.

If you can find it, have a look, but its not that great. A silly look at Aboriginality, because I don't think Aborigines would be that way inclined.