Needle

I happened to be in LA during Screamfest (really enjoyed the festival had a great atmosphere!). I tagged along with a group of friends who are die-hard horror/thriller fans, while myself I tend to steer away from the genre, mainly because it's a genre that has seen it all.

But I found Needle to be highly enjoyable, a device that allows a killer to kill their victims without physically killing them is a highly refreshing concept.

While I would of loved to have something more in the deaths (after the first two dying similar deaths) it still captivated me as I tried to work out who was picking apart this group of friends and why (I genuinely didn't pick the killer till the reveal at the end).

The cinematography was fantastic and was surprised to learn that it was actually a horror film produced entirely in Australia. Well worth seeing, can't wait to take my girlfriend to it and watch her squirm at the deaths! ☺

Plot

A killer uses an 18th century machine with supernatural powers to terrorize students at a college.

Cast

Travis "Vikings/Warcraft Movie" Fimmel and John "Wolf Creek" Jarratt star.

Verdict

It wasn't long after this that Australia began knocking it out of the park, great movie after great movie and then it ended as swiftly as it began. My Top 10 Australian movies list is quite impressive and I knew going in that Needle would be unlikely to get on it, and I was right.

It has an interesting enough premise, a remote method of killing such as Death Note but using an antiquated machine. As you can imagine it's your standard formula of introduce the 20 somethings, pick them off one by one and reveal the "Whodunnit" at the end. The trouble is the journey isn't fantastic, it's rather uninspired, it's boring and certain elements left me scratching my head as they made little sense and the rules of the box were a tad inconsistent.

I've seen worse Australian films, but this is one that's highly forgettable which is a shame as the potential was certainly there.

Rants

I've mentioned Death Note so of course have to say it. The Japanese delivered us the Death Note anime and it was a masterpiece, then they hit us with a live action television series of it and it surprisingly really good! Then they gave us 5 live action movies and they varied from very good to excellent. What happened next? That's right boys and girls the Americans came along and decided to give it a go and as is often the case it's as if the writer was given a 10 second presentation on what Death Note is and made a movie off the back of that. It's one of those "It didn't happen" movies which I try and deny the existence of such as the upcoming The Crow remake or Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). For shame Netflix, for shame!

The Good

Premise isn't awful Some visuals are quite good

The Bad

Totally forgettable Bland cast Inconsistent rules of the box Doesn't exactly flow.

NEEDLE is a nice slab of revenge-horror with a supernatural edge. It concerns a group of college friends who begin dying in godawful -and quite original- ways, after one of them inherits a mysterious wooden box. The survivors must figure out how to stop the carnage if they want to live.

Just imagine if SAW's Jigsaw was a practitioner of black magic, and you'll have some idea of where this movie goes.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The cool-looking box of doom! #2- The way the box works!

Ghoulish stuff indeed.

Watch for John Jarratt as the Coroner...

I've been meaning to write this review since I first watched it at the "CinfestOz" Premiere in Busselton a few months back. After reading some of the highly critical and unfair reviews I thought I would put in my two cents worth. I support any film made in Perth, particularly if they use WA crews. (I work in the industry, but did not work on this film, unfortunately). "Needle", "Blame" and "Wasted on the Young" are three examples of quality WA films that have been made on low budgets.

The DOP on Needle was Steve Windon and its clear his eye has had a huge influence on the look of the film - it looks very slick. Although I believe this was shot on Digital, it looks like they used 35MM cameras.

The story is very fresh. I admit to being wary about watching an Australian "horror movie" as most have been terrible in the past, but this film is a breath of fresh air. I have never seen a film where the killer uses a machine that makes voodoo dolls. Congratulations to the writers for thinking of this new device. Although the film has the same generic elements of a slasher, the characters, locations and story set this as a quality film with some major unique differences.

The film has a slower pace than most frenetic (and usually bad) US slashers and I noted some of the reviewers have criticized the film for this - they couldn't be more wrong! I loved spending time with the characters and when they started to get killed off I did start to feel the tension gradually rising and rising until the climatic end.

I have noted from their website that they are promoting the murder mystery element of Needle and without doubt this is the strongest part of the film. I certainly did not work out the killer until the reveal and this was a great surprise.

Overall my opinion is that this is a good film, well worth watching. I can't wait to see this again when its released in cinemas in Australia!

It's films like Needle that have driven me to become a genre based filmmaker. While I'm only in my final year of film school I've watched quite literally 100's of films in this genre! I had the opportunity to view Needle at a private screening earlier this year, at first I thought it was another run of the mill teens die movie which it still is, however it was first class in the way that they die, it actually made me go back to my script that I'm writing and look at my own killer and if there are ways I could be more original and creative.

Overall the script was nicely presented on screen however some of the acting in stages seemed underdone (above comment when Travis' character doesn't seemed phased about the gruesome death of someone he knows) and when the killer is revealed seems slightly overacted by the actor (still haven't been able to work out if this is the result of the script, actor or director).

However highly entertaining and refreshing, it showed me there is still plenty of life left in the genre that I love and can't wait to direct!