Visitors

I just found this movie bizarre. Parts of it were spooky and I thought Radha Mitchell did a fine acting job-but the cat was by far the best actor in the movie. What was with the bilge pump? Dead Calm or The Island would be much better spooky boat movies.

This Australian horror caught me by surprise, what I mean by that is I'd never heard of it so my expectations were low and doubly the type of horror movie it is rarely manages to entertain.

It tells the story of Georgia Perry a 25yr old Australian girl intent on sailing around the world solo. It stars Radha Mitchell and Dominic Purcell and is actually really quite good.

Mitchell carries the movie well considering she makes up the bulk of the film. It is well structured, genuinely tense and though not scary it certainly makes up for it in other areas.

It looks great, the cast do a solid job and despite the ropey ending I walked away suitably impressed.

The Good:

Highly original

Well written

Great setting

The Bad:

Questionable ending

Not for everyone

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Dominic Purcell looks weird with hair

A proper horror film with the same setting could be terrifying

"Visitors" has got a strong and likable lead. Being a fan of `Pitch Black' I decided to check this one out at the Fantasy Filmfest. The premise is promising and the atmosphere on the isolated sailing boat comes across nicely. At the theatre the surround sound is very effective because mysterious noises come from different directions. The film isn't boring but it isn't new and original either. The ending is disappointing so my rating is a solid 5. I expected a tense psycho thriller, but it isn't very exciting. You've seen everything in other and better films before.

The general premise of this film is a time-worn reliable gimmick: the lone woman in jeopardy. In this case, an interesting slow-build up to the main plot device keeps audiences engrossed: a 25 year old adventuress embarks upon a solo sailboat journey around the globe. While suffering through an extended period of being becalmed in tropical waters, she begins to believe she is being visited by ghostly apparitions who intend to kill her. Initially, the plot is intriguing as we wonder whether these nocturnal fears are real or imagined. However, as the film progresses, it deviates from being a straight forward thriller and introduces a lot of awkward goobledy-gook in which our heroine is visited by ghosts of her departed parents, menacing pirates, long dead relatives, and ultimately some over-sized spiders! Before long, the tiny vessel is as crowded as the S.S. Poseidon. The acting is very credible and the photography is also admirable, but director Richard Franklin makes the cardinal sin of showing us far too much of the mysterious visitors and their omnipresent status eventually makes them no more menacing than party guests who refuse to leave even though it's the wee small hours of the morning. The cumbersome screenplay degenerates into a confusing mess, and a completely unsatisfying climax that betrays our expectations that there will be a "sting in the tail" ending that explains most of what has preceded it. In all, a noble effort, but a failed one.

(2003) Visitors PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/ SUPERNATURAL

Co-produced and directed by Richard Franklin that has Australian, Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) along with her cat named Taco, attempting to be the first girl to sail around the world using her 38 yacht Leander. And while sailing she begins to come across unexplainable events which may or may not be real! Nothing wrong with Radha Mitchell's performance except the film has some bad dialogue and directions that does not do anything to keep viewers invested. The portion of this idea for this picture might've came from another boat picture released in 1989 called "Dead Calm".