Estranhas Fantasias

David Bradshaw is seldom off the screen as Alan Price, an investigative reporter for a Melbourne newspaper, in this Australian film which relates circumstances revolving about the death of a research scientist who is found to have been connected to a classified government project concerning human mind control. During the course of his investigation, Price involves himself with a possible double suicide and series of drug tinged murders, becomes the last hope of a somewhat withdrawn young woman who is the daughter of the late scientist and who is attempting to clear his name of sundry unsavoury allegations, is beaten by hired thugs, and makes several visits to a sophisticated sex club, all of these among his many activities. One becomes interested early on with the story, as it is written in an intelligent fashion with nice bits of humour and a broad range of complications; however, it becomes as murky as the visuals are throughout this work, and the ending is not merely excessively abrupt but seems to indicate that there is no consensus between the writers as to a resolution. A good deal of the action is spent upon what one must own to be gratuitously coarse behaviour and the boring, repetitious and poorly recorded score is of no assistance to any attempt at quality for the production, yet the editing by Ralph Strasser is very well done and moves the work smartly past various scenic non-sequiturs. Neither as scriptor nor director is Barry Peak successful here due to the remarkably hurried climactic scenes, but some of the cast performances are above average, particularly that of Simon Chilvers as a somewhat shady and perhaps not completely former government agent.

If you are looking for raw action and high drama you won't find it here. Instead, this film broods in the darkness so to speak and gradually makes its real horror until the viewer suddenly realizes they're witnessing a nightmare.

The lead, a reporter, tends to be low-key; likely he is jaded from having seen so much on the job and when he begins the investigation into a series of suicides he doesn't appear to be surprised.

Until later.

This film views its narrative from the view of the lead, and since he does not know anything except what learns during the movie, it isn't until the very end that we figure it out. People who are expecting a continuous bout of fighting and destruction will be disappointed. This film is subtle and delivers its message with a slow crush rather than a blunt hit.

Some of the differing views of this film may have to do with it being pure Australian. The Australian audience may see this differently than I do - it's something to keep in mind.

The music is interesting - it actually complements the film with its atonal melodic lines and constantly descending sequences. As though the music is following the progress of our hero for whom things get darker and darker.

I was very impressed when I saw this film. It certainly is not a conventional chase or horror film but it has its own unique flavor. It's worth giving it a look if you keep your expectations blank.

Here's a film that really doesn't see it's story through, while being a disappointment, on about almost every cylinder. The acting is so so, nothing to write home about. It's bad story structure here, some scenes almost unwarranted. Even the scenes in the sex club hardly do anything to titillate you. It's a shame as what's presented here, was a hell of a interesting plot, where it's story really didn't blossom. David Bradshaw, a little known Aussie actor, a thin John Burgess type looking guy, who sounds bloody like the game show host, plays an investigative reporter who sorely paid the price for one of his articles, which landing him in the clink. Now out, he's investigating the murder of a scientist, who apparently was about to blow the lid on this mind control drug. Of course the daughter wants revenge, and she teams up with Bradshaw to take down the baddies. There are so ugly moments too in this forgettable film, one funny scene with Bradshaw meeting an old mate (an ex Sullivan cast mate) in a football stadium, where the mate goes off at him, accusing him of being "a f..kin user". Another scene has a an annoyed motorist honking Bradshaw behind, where he signals go around, verbally retaliating by saying "Bite your bum". So I gather the reader has picked up on this critique, that we don't have the most original script, in what is sadly a mess of a movie, which like 2000'S Chill Factor, that great had potential to be a good movie. Sadly again, here, that potential has been blown off.