My Cherry Pie

Ozploitation became a phenomena in cinema during the early parts of the 1970's, when Australian filmmakers began to experiment with a new wave of productions which amalgamated low-budget horror, action, sexploitation and comedy together. Although Mad Max (1979) propelled the genre into the mainstream limelight, films like Razorback (1984), Long Weekend (1978) and Walkabout (1971) were equally influential on home soil.

With My Cherry Pie, Heath and Jakupi have thrown their hat in the Ozploitation ring, while also adding a fresh infusion of Giallo slasher and Tarantino-esque crime thriller to the mix, with a pinch of nasty Grindhouse for added flavour.

Freddy (Sotiris Tzelios) is released from prison and collected by his fellow criminal friends Jack (Dylan Heath) and Green (Tim Jason Wicks). The crew go on an ill-fated crime spree and they make a run for it out of Melbourne. When their car dies along a rural road, local Edwin Crow (Glenn Maynard) offers them food and shelter, with the promise of towing their car in the morning. During the night, the men are introduced to Edwin's seductive, but simple, niece Cherry (Trudi Ranik) and they discover their fight for freedom has only just begun.

Co-Directors Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi, working from a screenplay by Heath, creates a very distinctive eighties aesthetic, while also melding together familiar sub genres, and influenced by the success of X and Pearl, but at its core My Cherry Pie is a grimy slasher flick with a disturbing familial twist. The addition of Tarantino inspired dialogue, and character traits, makes it a fresh take on a well explored plot, with the banter between the three main protagonists, playfully injecting some much-needed humour into a storyline which features a few triggering and traumatic topics towards the climax.

The use of practical effects, although typical low-budget fare, is impressive. Makeup effects artists Nick Kocsis and Armanda Pozzetto pull out all the stops to create a number of memorable, gory, set pieces. The kills are gloriously brutal and bloody, which is the main consideration for exploitation fans and there is a lot to enjoy on that front. Eye-slicing violence and gratuitous dismemberment is lovingly crafted by filmmakers who obviously have a passion for the genre and a generous level of respect for their audience.

The film falters on set design and cinematography, the usual culprits when it comes to Indie filmmaking, however. The location in use, a disused psychiatric hospital, holds enormous potential and shows ambition, but creepy hallways are underutilised, while off-white walls and outdated curtains are overused. Performances by all the players are par for a low-to-zero budget production, and the hints of comedy and snappy dialogue almost elevates these efforts, but ultimately the lack of any real surprise or genuine originality hampers any prospects for elevation beyond standard Indie quality.

Horror fans will find much to enjoy as My Cherry Pie blazes a bloody trail through the Australian woods and gives the viewer all the blood splatter and evisceration they could possibly desire.

Co-directors Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi know their source material. This film is a fantastic homage to slasher and exploitation cinema of the 70's and 80's that could only be made by people that love and know these genres. Black Forest Films keep upping their game on every subsequent feature they put out. Their previous efforts Mondo Yakuza, The Vipers Hex and Under a Kaleidoscope are all excellent films too. My Cherry Pie is no different amd they continue to make lovingly crafted independent cinema that resonates with genre fans. My Cherry Pie is a mashup of 80's American slasher, Italian Giallo and sleaze with a dash of Aussie crime. Funny as hell, gory and just total fun. The cast are all excellent in their respective roles, the camera work, editing and lighting are a real highlight along mixing perfectly with the score too. Again, this film will be much more appreciated by hardened horror fans amd students of underground cinema with a bunch of references to all our horror and sleaze favourites from tje 70's and 80's. Even knowing all of this the story is fresh and the dialogue original. Did I mention the gore!? There's heaps of practical bloodletting and deaths by chainsaw! The location is an abandoned hospital from the early 1900's which is super creepy and used to great advantage which really elevates the production. Just an all round beautiful looking film and a whole lot of fun. Loved it.

After getting free from prison, a group of hoodlums decides to revert back to their old ways and score a handful of drugs from another local hoodlum and decide to hold up in an isolated farmhouse to let the heat die down, but when they realize that a maniacal killer is hunting them must get away alive.

This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic slasher effort. Most of the films' positive features are based heavily around the stalking and slashing present which is pretty well-handled. The giallo influences here manage to leave quite a strong impression not only with the ability to utilize the classic disguise for the killer but also shows a ton of influence in the way the stalking scenes are handled. Featuring the killer's POV for the majority of the scenes showing him sneaking up on unsuspecting and unassuming victims while featuring the ever-present tactic of the killer's weapon-holding hand coming up behind them during the sequence, it creates some solid ambushes amidst the sea of indie-style confrontation scenes of random nameless victims being taken out in graphic fashion. That goes along with some of the revelations that come about in the finale where it has some fun with where it ends up going, giving this some enjoyable elements at times. There are some negative factors within this one that bring it down. Among its main detriments is a wildly discordant and jarring storyline that tends to go off on odd tangents introducing scores of characters without really tying them together early on. Getting the pieces laid out but not doing much with them due to the randomized nature we originally get introduced to the hoodlums going around stealing drugs from others or the strange family dynamic that goes on between the guy and his niece that they eventually stumble into while on the run from everyone. This all comes together rather awkwardly to the point it's possible not to realize it's truly a genre film until nearly an hour in when it opts for bloodshed completely due to the need for trying to make the cringe-inducing criminals seem funny. These can make it feel slightly longer than it really is due to not getting us on board with who they are due to this, but otherwise, that's what holds it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.