Red Billabong

I'm upset about how bad this movie is. As an Australian I worry for Australian sci-fi. Much like Occupation (2018), that other awful Aussie sci-fi, the cgi and camerawork was good, but the story, and particularly the script, was unnatural and difficult to bear. Red Billabong may have worked if this were about a reunion of two estranged brothers (no unexplained horror). Or, Red Billabong may have worked if this were solely about two brothers, not estranged, battling an unexplained horror. I'm not kidding, the mish mash of two estranged brothers battling each other and an unexplained horror was just plain irritating. The theme may sound familiar, and others may argue that relationship colour alongside adversity is a common and highly popular theme. I'll grant that, but for me, it seemed that the script had been written by a 13 year old with no real experience of what he/she was writing about. I'm not kidding, there are unrealistic stereotypes, sexism, male bitchiness, horrible initial portraits of young women, loads of cliches, potty mouths throughout, and way too many attempted classic lines. It's awful. At a certain point about 50 mins in a young man with a beanie appears and converses casually with one of the brothers. This beanie guy has appeared from nowhere in the forest, and is not seen again, nor was he seen previously in the movie. I actually clicked on all the pics above to try and figure whom the hell he was! Awful and irritating. Please Australian film, please check your work better!

Absolutely dumbfounded as to how this is getting anything higher than 3 - 3.5 stars

As one of the previous reviewers suggested, it does look like it was made by Uni students during their lunch break. There are a number of painful scenes where the actors really are unsure of what they're supposed to be doing or how they should be acting.

Also, with regards to CGI, if you don't have the budget to do it well, don't do it at all. It was laughable. We didn't really need to see as much as we did, it would have been better leaving more to the imagination.

Wooden acting at best with lackluster direction. The idea and potential could have been great with thorough execution but this just left us all feeling like we wanted 2 hours of our lives back.

The dog was great.

Funny thing with some of the other 10/10 reviews.... check the profiles, one gold coast actor (supporting his friends in the industry) the others all created recently and only reviewing this film ... I smell a rat! ;-)

I had high hopes of this flick as Australian creature features of the past such as rogue and razorback were well constructed. This however fell dry and flat with scheduled cliché Aussie songs and slang sayings. The generic character stereotypes were spot on the money for this sort of movie however they were mostly all overacted and generally unbelievable at best. as a fond fan of the horror genre this movie seemed to cross over to the action genre after approximately 50 minutes of boring character building. There were no scare scenes nor shock factor moments. There were no real comedic moments which are usually familiar within Australian films however I did find myself having a giggle at the terrible creature effects and the unrealistic script. The one star for this movie is attributed to the stunning Queensland scenery and most of the outdoor backdrop shots. To conclude, this could have been an extended episode of home and away which may have had a better reception among those viewers.

What begins as a promising premise, and remains so is immediately hampered by Dan Ewing and Tom Pockock's meeting. These ex-"Neighbours/ Home & Away" actors, and I use the term 'actor' loosely, undo any hint at danger in this dreadfully written script. The photography is good, the music quite good, but the 'acting' is absolutely appalling. Seriously, these guys and gals need to take some acting lessons or better still, spend some time on stage in the theater where actors learn how to act, not just pose for the camera. If they are graduates of established drama schools like NIDA or WAPA, then these schools have failed and should be treated as "Soapies feed factories. They sure as Hell don't teach acting skills. Dreadful script predictable to the end; characters so 2D they don't need to open their mouths; acting - just appallingly bad. what an abysmal entry that could have been so much more. Alas, it is a SyFy Channel movie transplanted to Australia at best. To think Dan Ewing is considered "an up and coming star". If he is, we're in trouble. He cannot, I repeat cannot act to save himself....or indeed this film.

The idea that "just because an Aussie made it -- It MUST be supported" is rubbish -- this really feels like a university student film with a high school plot - the online PR is promoting that this is Australia's first CGI film... ummm ... so what?!?! Using CGI doesn't equal a good film. In fact the CGI is below average. Everything in this film is clichéd to the point of embarrassing. The story is predictable. The actors are soap calibre. The link to ancient culture is forced & ill-conceived. There is no horror. No thrill. Nothing new. This is naive film-making at it's worst. The whole exercise looks like a marketing survey aimed at the lowest common denominator.