Razorback

Okay, the plot sounds ludicrous, doesn't it? A giant killer pig? Despite the apparent ridiculousness of the plot, this movie is better than one might expect.

Beth Winters, a Canadian reporter, has come to the small Australian Outback town of Gamulla to shoot a story about the local dog food packing plant, which uses the meat of poached kangaroos in its product. When Beth disappears one night, her husband Carl arrives to find out what happened. Beth apparently ran afoul of the psychotic Baker brothers, who work in the plant. But crusty old Jake Cullen soon learns that Beth was a victim of a giant razorback, the same one that carried off his grandson years before and which he has been hunting ever since.

The Australian Outback becomes an almost alien world - desolate, strange and scary where any form of undiscovered life might exist. You don't get to see much of the giant pig, admittedly, but then they didn't have CGI back in the early 80's. The real menace of this movie lies with the kangaroo poachers, two brothers who reek of malevolence and filth all the way through the film. They were truly terrifying, and the insane laughter of David Argue (playing younger and more dangerous brother Dicko) still haunts me to this day.

Worth watching at least once.

Judging by the external reviews, quite a few people appear to hate this film. I can see why, but I think they're coming at it from the wrong angle.

I see it as - intentionally - trying to send up the whole genre of vengeful animals horror flicks. In truth, neither sharks nor grizzlies, and certainly not razorback hogs, are smart enough to conceptualize, let alone carry out, acts of vengeance on humankind. The film simply takes the "rules" of this particular genre and applies them to a ludicrously unfit vehicle: a giant pig. And there are some pretty funny scenes, notably one where the monster eats a nasty watchdog that's chained to the side of a house; naturally, the corner of the house to which the chain is attached comes off and Joe Couch Potato is left sitting in a wall-less abode, staring quizzically as his television disappears into the outback.

Treat it as comedy, and the film makes a lot more sense.

It's not that scary with an abrupt ending and features some really annoying characters but Razorback is still overall a good thriller. Gregory Harrison and Bill Kerr are both great. There's a few effectively suspenseful scenes and it's surprisingly extremely well filmed with some really gorgeous shots. There are some laughably bad moments and the music by Iva Davies is really good.

The best thing about this Australian production is Russell Mulcahey's direction which gives this admittedly doofy material a veneer of class. (Although he does have a tendency to overuse the fog machine.)

What this film has going against it however is Gregory Harrision's ineffectual performance as the "hero". I remember him spending most of the film getting beaten up and/or falling down.

If this had focused on the "Moby Dick" aspect of the storyline, that has a grizzled old man searching the outback for the killer boar that killed his baby, it would have been a bit stronger in the storyline department. As it is now, it's OK.

One striking shot follows the next in this monster B-movie, and the overall tone of the visuals is beautiful, I think. And there is some thick, intense atmosphere. In those departments it's so stunning that the many flaws can't ruin the film. The acting is OK all in all but there are some moments that make you want to put your head through the next wall. The action scenes and especially the ones with the razorback, a huge boar, are more or less comprehensible in that you get the basic idea of what's going on but all the crucial scenes happen between cuts, so the editing is jumpy, kind of like a TV edit. The worst example is the movie's finale and the destruction of the monster, which after an exhaustingly loud, dark, monotonous battle between man and monster plot-wise also ends on a ridiculous and schmaltzy note and so the film leaves you with a bad aftertaste. But those visuals, man, those visuals... It's kinda like a more extreme 'Alien³'. Worse plot, more stunning visuals. What else could I do but consider this a new B-movie favorite?