Carnifex

Not that bad, fairly well filmed and with pretty nice sight of the Australian bush, but it suffers from the modern need to preach you to death, to the point that it just get insufferable.

So first you have to go through literally half the movie getting preach mercilessly about ecology and the evil of human, 45 minutes of characters walking in the forest giving you life lessons and guilting you to oblivion. Without counting the also very modern need of writing every male character as a goofy caricature unable to do anything but be a joke (it could have passed fairly in this movie if not every male character were not just simply useless without exception).

Then comes the usual bad writing of lazy horror, with the final 30 minutes, where every character becomes dumb for no reason, running around in the dark and forgetting they are professional who should know how to handle a situation involving a predator. And of course the predator himself which literally a scene after being describe as an ambush and stalker predator (and behaving like one), suddenly decide to become stupid and pursue the main characters like any dumb generic predator.

In the end, like I said, nicely filmed, but lazy writing suffering from the modern tropes of having to preach you instead of entertaining you.

I liked this old fashioned horror film, that reminds me the seventies, eighties very easily. It's never boring, using though the same methods for scaring the audiences, so many clichés, but we are in a horror film, not a comedy,and the director took no risks in trying something different. It's spooky and that's all. The producers were sure to obtain what they wanted, to receive money from their investments, and the best receipe is not to take risks and give the audiences what they want. They want sh...give em sh...They want predictable plots, give em predictable plots and that's it. Formatted tastes from the audiences and fomatted results on screen. The audiences will provoke the collapse of creativity. That makes me puke, sorry.... I am in such distress.

It's a fun movie in my book & well worth a watch. If you go camping in the Aussie bush, who knows what those noises at night are?

Typically Australian & without the mega budget, the magnificent landscapes are the backdrop (ala The Hunter) for a well done take on an Australian myth, legend or maybe reality. Even we don't know for sure.

The actors fit the bill well, as far as they know they're just normal people doing a normal job. It's not a blood & gore fest, more like a suspense WTF is that type movie.

I'm very impressed given it was filmed a few Km's from home (I know most of the locations) and it's a big screen movie.

Wow ... this one ... well I have conflicting thoughts ... but in the end there is just so much more bad than good. OK, GREAT locations, and the scene direction is actually really good. Turning off the sound and watching the scenes go by would actually have made this more enjoyable.

That said, the script was AWFUL. Is it so hard for low budget producers/directors to understand that this is one of the most cost effective way to take a movie from crappy to excellent? So if you settle for something you scrawled out while on the can, well you should have left it in there. And audiences do want to be preached to, STOP IT!

The absolute overuse of crud moves (as one reviewer described them as 'jump scenes') ... oh my, what a waste.

It bugs me when some reviewers give high marks when they consider only one or two factors. Yes, I agree the scenery is great, but if the rest of the components of a good movies aren't there, you should not get high rating.

CARNIFEX follows three passionate conservationists, Grace (Sisi Stringer), Bailey (Alexandra Park) and Ben (Harry Greenwood), as they venture deep into the Australian outback in hopes of recording evidence of devastation caused by the wildfires. The trio soon discovers a terrifying species - the Carnifex - that has been previously undocumented, and they quickly realize that they are now the ones being tracked.

CARNIFEX is a missed opportunity. Despite a talented cast, the story fails to take off. After a cliched opening of someone being attacked by something unseen, the first half of the movie plods on with boring and stilted dialogue and where little happens apart from the characters peering up into the trees. The documentary maker in the story hardly ever has her camera running and never does when any documentary maker would do so. The acting is unconvincing (although the dog does a decent job), and the story did not have enough suspense to keep me engaged.

The second half of the movie picks up with a couple of intense action sequences, but even then, it feels too formulaic and predictable. The effects work is satisfactory, but nothing stands out.

The bush setting is beautiful but underutilised and left me with little more than a couple of jump scares. The soundtrack also fails to engage, being sparse and lacking in tension.

CARNIFEX is a forgettable horror flick that won't leave you too traumatized or thrilled. It's an adequate timewaster, but uninspiring. If you're looking for a true horror experience, you'd be better off checking out something else.

CARNIFEX is simply a shallow and forgettable movie that doesn't live up to its potential. It boasts beautiful cinematography of the Australian bush but fails to offer anything unique or interesting. It's not worth your time or money.