Dying Breed

Searching the Australian outback, a group of friends out looking for a legendary animal instead stumble upon a group of deranged cannibals selling their victim's unused body parts and try to avoid becoming part of their spree.

This was a pretty troubling and overall mixed affair. Among the numerous big flaws here is the fact that barely anything at all really happens in this one which draws the viewer in, where the majority of time here doesn't come off as enjoyable. A lot of this here is due to the group were forced to spend all the time with, who are an utterly annoying group that are completely unlikable that really wouldn't be friend as the wild, out-of-control jerk really shouldn't be with them as he would've prove tall that trust worthy in real-life. Acting like the stereotypical he-man macho jerk that has to be the leader of everything, bosses and beats-down everyone into seeing things his way and is such a general pain that he really wears himself out rapidly. That also plays a huge part of the film's first half pacing problems as not only is spending time here excruciating but their other antics are even less so, wandering through the endless miles of forest in their jeep or staying at the motel with the locals don't really have any really enjoyable sections. It's all filled with really uninteresting moments that simply drag this along, at a really slow pace due to these parts. There's also the rather troubling part here that all this manages to hold off the actual attacks until so late in the film that there's barely anytime here where the family actually goes about attacking them which causes the film some really troubled times here as there's so little time here spent with the main purpose of the film being them being stalked yet that can't happen with the film set-up the way it is. Even more troubling here is that the motivation for it all is yet another cliché of the inbred psychos looking for purity outside the clan which isn't all that original or unique and takes a lot of fear out of the family. These big flaws are damaging enough that the few positives here aren't enough to really make a dent, although they are noticeable. The film's biggest plus here is the rather fun and charged second half, where after they get past the dangers with the family and finally realize they're being chased as there's some really chilling work in the atmospheric forest as the first encounter by the cave where they encounter the cannibal patriarch who begins munching on the victim in the bushes the guide hikes them out through the forest into the dark, trap-filled mine and then the great encounter on the other side of the mountain. From finding the mutilated body of the guide alongside the remains of their friend and then encounter the shack in the woods where they have the gnawed bodies and skeletal pieces left behind there which sets up the truly chilling chase and eventual confrontation on the bridge which gives this some really fun times here. The only other enjoyable art here is the film's blood and gore, which not only come from the opening attack on the original member but the few small, bloody attacks here. These here make this enjoyable enough, but the flaws are just too detrimental.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, sexual content, a rape scene and graphic violence against animals.

Between 1788 and 1868, Australia served as a penal colony for the British Empire and Tasmania was the most feared. The prisoner Alexander "The Pieman" Pearce escaped and survived in the woods eating human flesh. In the present days, the researcher Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) organizes an expedition to Tasmania to proceed the work of her deceased sister Ruth and find evidences of the extinct Tasmanian tiger in the wilderness. She travels to a remote area with her boyfriend Matt (Leigh Whannell) and his troublemaker friend Jack (Nathan Phillips) that brings his girlfriend Rebecca (Melanie Vallejo) and they spend the night in a village of descendants of "The Pieman". Sooner the quartet discovers that things have to stay hidden to survive.

"Dying Breed" is another sub product of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and gives the sensation of déjà vu to the viewer with the total lack of originality. There are many flaws in the predictable story, like for example, how could an expedition travel unarmed in a remote area in the wilderness? What would they expect while observing the wildlife? How can a group travel without a Plan B for unexpected situations? The greatest different in this feature is the wonderful location in Australia. Further, the acting is good and for fans of the slash genre, it entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Possibly the worst thing a distributor can do if they're testing to see if an Aussie horror should be released in the US/international cinema circuit is to release it in Australia first. First, the market for horror in OZ is tiny (only a small amount of people will go to see even the best horror at cinemas). Second, Aussies are the harshest critics of their own films - and if there is anything remotely wrong with the film the "tall poppy syndrome" kicks in and we cut it to shreds. We tend to focus on what's wrong with a local film rather than what's right with the film.

OK, so the film is a little derivative borrowing from Deliverance, Wrong turn and Hills have eyes - so what, most horrors derive from something these days. But what's right with the film? Plenty. There is some nasty, nasty, gore and cannibalism that made girls scream, people in the cinema jump three feet in the air and watch through trembling hands. The myth of the Pieman and Tasmanian Tiger is fascinating and intriguing storyline. Once the carnage kicks in this is a tense, brooding film that will have you on the edge of your seat. There are some very,very, good scenes - particularly the rabbit, and the bear trap scene. The setting and look of the film is brilliant - dark gloomy and and ominous.

I loved this film! It's up there with the best Aussie horrors and among some of the better international horrors. It will proudly go on my DVD shelf.

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.

"Dying Breed" is a largely derivative and predictable Aussie horror flick that nevertheless benefices from a handful of marvelous elements, like a fascinating historical plot outline (albeit not at all accurate), breathtaking filming locations & scenery and a few unyielding shock sequences. The pivot character in "Dying Breed", even though he only briefly appears during the opening sequence, is Alexander Pearce a.k.a. "The Pieman". He was a cannibalistic murderer of Irish descent who got exiled to Tasmania to pay for the crimes he committed. Back in the early eighteen hundreds, when the whole of Australia was still a British prison colony and Tasmania an island where the heaviest cases were shipped off to, Alexander "Pieman" Pearce was the only convict how managed to escape and flee into the impenetrable Tasmanian forests. Obviously this plot outline isn't entirely accurate, as the real Pieman was in fact the nickname of a completely different prisoner and the real Alexander Pearce died at the gallows in 1824, but hey, it's a horror movie so everything goes. After the introduction of Pearce and the Tasmanian region, the plot resumes in present day Tasmania with the arrival of four twenty-something adventurers. Nina is a zoologist and wishes to continue the research of her sister who died here eight years ago whilst looking for last remaining species of the Tasmanian Tiger. She and her friends quickly discover that her sister didn't just drown, but fell victim to the bewildered and horribly inbred descendants of Alexander Pearce. They have only one goal in their miserable existence and that is to keep the bloodline alive. At the festival where I watched this movie, "Dying Breed" was exaggeratedly promoted like an Aussie interpretation of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes". Perhaps this is a fairly apt comparison, but stating something like that inevitably raises high expectations that "Dying Breed" can't possible fill in. Director Jody Dwyer does a reasonably good job, but he/she (?) yet doesn't succeed in generating an atmosphere of despair and sheer terror. It also takes slightly too long before the suspense and nastiness truly breaks loose. The first half of the film is overly stuffed with typical inbred jokes and stereotypical tourist behavior. There are a handful of downright disgusting sequences, notably a gruesome bear trap death sequence and a few close ups of pick-axes-in-the-head moments, which will undoubtedly appeal to the bloodhounds among us. The nature and wildlife images are dreamy to stare at and the acting performances are surprisingly above average. One of the lead actors is Leigh Whannell who, along with James Wan, created the original concept of "Saw".