Dying Breed

While I'm not sure that I'd watch Dying Breed again, I have to admit that I enjoyed it through the first time.

There are some great landscape shots in this movie and, overall, I felt the atmosphere was creepy, lending itself well to the dark tone of the picture. There was some suspense and a bit of gore as well. However, there was nothing really new or interesting in the plot. Similar movies have covered the same material before (Wrong Turn, perhaps to a lesser extent even The Chainsaw Massacre movies...) and although there's a link to an actual historical figure, it's a pretty weak link and there's no new twists to make this unique.

The characters are all pretty unlovable, so there's not much to relate to in that department.

The production values are high, so I have to recommend this over some of the other After Dark Horror Fest films I've seen. I feel it's a solid five; flawed but very watchable.

Dying Breed is a waste. It is very very little about Tasmanian Tigers and more of a redo of some other horror movies.

Nothing new or different. Same old blood soaked chopping and slashing and women chasing.

Tired story line. Young people lost in woods find weirdos who eat people. Seen it before many times. BORING.

How to make a better movie. Drop the dumb dialogue, drop the dumb story line, get people who can act, they are called actors, less splash and more suspense, go back to telling an engaging story, and stop trying to be shocking. In fact, a good and well written movie would be shocking. Dying Breed sure was not anything worth seeing. The best part of dying breed were the few moments of the old (1930s) film clips of the Tasmaian Tiger

Australia is a beautiful country, the people and the land, however it has a dark history and 'Dying breed' is a small piece of that nostalgic pie. Two couples head into the Tasmanian wilderness in search of the extinct Tasmanian tiger and soon find themselves in unforgiving country populated by unforgiving locals. The direction and acting is steady with no real stand out performance and the characters seem a bit flat at times but the shots of Tasmania's isolated country side are fantastic and set a haunting tale. This formula has been applied countless times so there's nothing new here but its done well serving up some good blood and guts and proves along with Wolf creek that Aussie film can do horror. If your Austalian make it tradition to go see Australian films!

Just saw Jody Dwyer's Dying Breed. What an excellent Australian Horror flick it is! It could well be one of my favourite Australian Films of the year.

Four young cryptozoologists go to check out Western Tasmania in search of ye ol' Tasmanian Tiger. Little do they know they are stumbling upon the ancestors of Alexander Pearce, the famous Australian ex-convict, bush ranger and sometime cannibal known as the 'Pieman'. Suffice to say fine dining is loosed on the Pieman River as a group of Deliverance style in bred Tassie freaks hunt down our hapless Tiger hunters. Dying Breed is well cast with Leigh Whannell (Saw) giving us a great version of the metro-sexual out of his league in the wilds of Western Tasmania and Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek) as a roustabout larrikin hunter. Whannel is an excellent leading man and should branch out from horror and do other serious work. The two girls Sally MacDonald and Melanie Vallejo are good too. Especially the later, when she is strung up and dismembered Cannibal Holocaust style out the back of the Pieman's shed. I'm sure Leigh Whannell must have been showing the director Cannibal Holocaust, as this scene certainly bears the imprint of that classic film and the Dying Breed scene is very well done in its brutality. The film has various very effective set pieces in a cave, at night in the bush, out the back of the killer's shed, on a bridge at dawn, etc. All shot effectively and scored very nicely. The ominous Tasmanian landscape evokes a darkness akin to what DH Lawrence said about the great primordial emptiness of the Australian bush. The film should travel well as the Aussie accents aren't too harsh, and one is a Irish accent. The family of inbred freaks are memorable and varied in their motivations and actions.

Dying Breed is a great edgy genre piece that is one of the first to appear in the new wave of horror cannibal films, so its ahead of the game world wide, also. I would have to rate it right up there with Rogue from last year and Acolytes, Horseman and Rats and Cats.

Why did they not enter it in MUFF? It would have won some awards! Check out the posters. I like the stylish one, while the second one with a gory pie will entice the teen market.

Stylish new Ozploitation is on display, that gives hope to the future of the Australian Film Industry!

I just got back from seeing Dying Breed and it was quite a mixed bag.

It took at least 50 minutes for the main action to begin. The first act got repetitive, dull and boring quickly as our four main characters seemed to do nothing and just chat. Don't get me wrong, I love character development, but they could have taken about ten minutes off the first act. There were many pointless scenes.

The other bad factor was the acting. Leigh Whannel sadly gave a poor performance, as well as all the other members in the group of four.

Onto the good, the gore was excellent and the film had that raw and gritty feel to it. Some scenes were creepy and disturbing. Also, the ending was very good and a fitting climax to the film.

Overall, this is an above average Aussie horror with many flaws and clichés, but still manages to entertain. A very generous 7/10.