Storm Warning

This is a very effective low budget offering from the Southern hemisphere.

The plot is pretty simple, revolving around a yuppie couple who stumble upon a backwoods family who take them prisoner. What elevates this film above similar tales is the sheer sense of menace and relentless vulnerability that is created, and also the sheer energy and inventiveness with which the captors are depicted.

Personally, I felt very uncomfortable throughout and I empathised with the couple who had somehow got themselves into so much trouble. The woman, who to make matters worse is French, is under constant threat of rape. I felt particularly sorry for her lawyer boyfriend who is helplessly out of his depth and fully aware that he is unable to defend her.

However, she is made of pretty stern stuff and when her boyfriend is incapacitated by the savage yokels they have encountered she takes matters into her own hands and begins the fight back.

This protracted turning of the tables takes up the final third of the film and is handled with great energy and and enthusiasm. Some old-school booby traps are employed against one of the villains whilst she has another trick up her, ahem, sleeve which really has to be seen to be believed.

Without giving too much away, I found the eventual structure of this film quite fascinating and original, but for the casual viewer alike this film really delivers. There is plenty of atmosphere, humour, set-piece carnage and thrills for everyone and the hyped up soundtrack keeps things moving along nicely.

"From the director of Valentine and Urban Legend …" the rental DVD cover exclaims loud and proud, but I'm not entirely sure if this is the best way to promote your film to true horror fans. Even more so, if I were in directors Jamie Blanks' shoes, I would insist to have those two titles removed as it might even cause people to relinquish from seeing "Storm Warning" altogether. Both "Valentine" and "Urban Legend" are mundane, unmemorable and politically correct American teen slashers, whereas "Storm Warning" is a provocatively raw and unhinged piece of Aussie survival horror. Albeit a fairly prototypic product of nowadays hypes and trends (like torture porn flicks and the revival of Grindhouse-type movie), "Storm Warning" plays in an entirely different – and superior – league than those infantile teen slashers. It almost feels as if Jamie Blanks returned to his home country Australia and finally got offered the chance to make a legit horror movie after all that confined and disappointing Hollywood crap. But, as indicated already, originality isn't exactly this film's biggest trump. We're overflowed with this sort of horror films nowadays (just think of "Hostel", "Scar", "Wolf Creek", "Blood Trails"…) and, since they pretty much all feature the same plot outline, the final judgement of whether it's "good" or "bad" almost fully relies on how gory, shocking and sadistic the film is. Fans of rough and nasty can be reassured; "Storm Warning" reaches an extremely high score on the repulsiveness-scale! The film takes off slow and moodily unsettling, but in the last twenty or so minutes all hell breaks loose and we're treated to a handful outrageously engrossing and surprisingly ingenious torture sequences. A young couple making a sailboat day trip lose their sense of direction and can't return to the harbor because of a suddenly uprising storm. They strand on a remote island and seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned farmhouse. Then, of course, the farmers return and turn out to be two menacing, perverted and psychopathic brothers …. And then the couple hasn't even met their "poppy" yet. The first hour of this short but effective little Aussie shocker is slow but nevertheless suspenseful. Director Blanks clearly adores long pan shots of the ocean and the darkening clouds, but somehow these images set the exact right tone for the events to come. Later on, "Storm Warning" is truly hardcore-to-the-bone, with the French girl suddenly transforming into a do-it-yourself avenging angel! There's also a rather uncomfortable moment involving a cute wallaby and – hands down – the most agonizing penis moment since that infamous scene in "I Spit on your Grave". Nadia Farès is a ravishing lady to look at and particularly the three native Aussie freaks (David Lyons, Mathew Wilkinson and John Brumpton as Poppy) are marvelously convincing.

Yuppies have a lot of trouble driving pickups. Hillbillies detest Volvo's. Yuppie women who are squeamish about fishing somehow can figure out how to turn fishing rods into booby-traps. Obviously yuppie women also know that hillbillies skip foreplay completely. In "Storm Warning", the yuppies and hillbillies have one thing in common, and that is no common sense. Prepare to be amazed by a plot that relies on the yuppies purposely steering their small boat into a mangrove swamp, with a storm approaching, get lost, and seek shelter in a house that is obviously occupied by degenerate locals (you can't help but notice the blowup doll in the living room). The hillbillies, who can barely write their names in the mud with a stick, might elicit some sympathy after all. - MERK

I can't believe any true fan of the horror genre can walk away from this film without fully appreciating it for what it offers. This movie really delivers on several levels. First, for a low-budget film, the cinematography is breathtaking. The film grade used is not grainy like you might expect for the budget, the camera work is exceptional, and the lighting is expertly used to create many different moods. Also, the soundtrack is awesome, with a lot of bass that will make your sub-woofer work overtime. Second, the acting is well above-average for the genre, and all actors deliver convincing performances in roles that make this situation particularly believable. I was unable to tear myself away from this film for a second, and it is a roller coaster ride that has to be seen to be believed! Nine stars.

I've been watching a lot of these type of horror movies recently - Wrong Turn 2, Hostel 2, Timber Falls etc. All of them feature normal people who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and usually end up with some - if not all - of their limbs missing. It's been a popular horror genre since the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out and so it's difficult to take the premise and make it original. Is "Storm Warning" original? Not really. Is it a good movie? Yes!

"Storm Warning" begins slowly with our two main characters out fishing on their boat. They soon become lost on their way home and end up on a small island as rain clouds fill the sky above. Once they discover a seemingly abandoned house and the storm arrives, all hell then breaks loose. Despite being directed by the same man behind such awful movies as "Valentine", it's one of the better horror movies I've seen recently (and shows that director Jamie Blanks works best when he doesn't have to worry about pleasing the censors).

"Storm Warning" manages to combine elements from movies such as "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs" to create something that is scary, gory and even funny at times. The three actors who portray the deranged antagonists are all superb and are suitably menacing. You never know quite what they're going to do next - and it's that tension that keeps you watching.

It's Nadia Fares who really sells this movie though. Her character's transition throughout "Storm Warning" is totally believable and the way in which her character eventually fights back leads to some brilliant scenes that will both surprise and entertain you. There were at least two occasions where I even found myself thinking "Oh my god! Did that really happen?"

Yes, it's not original but it's unsettling, well-acted, nicely written, very gory in places and ultimately fun. What more can you ask for from a horror movie?

A triumphant 8 out of 10.