[ad_1]
Horror films come from across the world. Many of the most famous films and directors from the genre hail from overseas. Countries like Japan, Italy, and South Korea have all given the world some of the most affecting films in horror as well as some of the most famous directors. However, the world is a big place and there are plenty of countries producing horror gems that are underseen and underrated.
Australia is one of those countries that quietly produces some of the best entries in the genre but is never included in the conversation. Films like The Babadook and Wolf Creek both hail from down under, but there are plenty more where they came from.
Directed by Natalie Erika James and written by James and Christian White, Relic is a psychological horror film from 2020. The elderly and infirm Edna (Robyn Nevin) has gone missing, and her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) travel to her remote home to look for her. They find the home filled with post-it notes and black mold. Edna does return, but has no memory of her disappearance. As the film unfolds, the two younger women find themselves blanketed by creeping uncertainty and frightening encounters with their increasingly unstable matriarch.
Relic made quite a buzz with critics but went largely unnoticed by audiences, although those that did see it gave it rave reviews. The slow-burn film reaches a crescendo of body horror and uncertainty with an oppressive atmosphere and well-placed scares, accompanied by excellent performances by all three leads.
This 1982 psychological slasher also features family drama, but of a different kind. When Linda (Jacki Kerrin) inherits a crumbling old estate from her deceased aunt Rita, she travels to the old house to investigate what she has been left with. The estate is a retirement community overseen by Doctor Barton (Alex Scott) and employee Connie (Gerda Nicolson). Upon finding her mother’s old diaries that are still conveniently on the property, Linda discovers that people have been dying strangely in the building for years.
Convinced that her aunt is still alive, despite seemingly dying in a psychiatric facility years earlier, Linda struggles to understand who, or what is killing residents of the community and to unravel the mystery surrounding her aunt’s supposed death. Next of Kin is a fun entry into the slasher genre, and while it doesn’t offer many surprises, it is still an enjoyable watch.
Released in 2009, The Loved Ones sees one teenager deal with the consequences of turning down a date to prom. After a brief Chekhov’s gun prologue, Brent (Xavier Samuel) is invited to prom by Lola (Robin McLeavey). He declines because he has a girlfriend, Holly (Victoria Thaine), and will be attending with her. Later, Brent is knocked unconscious and awakens to find himself being held captive in a house decorated as a facsimile prom. He is being held by Lola and her father Eric (John Brumpton).
The Loved Ones is a twisted take on obsession and madness, with lots of gruesome details and revelations. Brent isn’t the first person Lola has obsessed over, and there’s every chance he could meet some of her past suitors after his evening of torture and humiliation. Once Brent learns the depths that Lola and Eric will sink to, will he survive? The film is a brutal ride and one that genre fans should put on their watch lists.
2008 found footage film Lake Mungo is a cult hit with fans of the subgenre, but isn’t as well known outside of it. Joel Anderson wrote and directed the faux documentary which centers on the Palmer family, who is dealing with the death of their 16-year-old daughter Alice and who they believe is haunting them. Alice drowned in Lake Mungo after having dreams about drowning and about being dead with her mother unable to see her. However, Lake Mungo is not in any way a straightforward paranormal activity film.
The plot twists and turns, casting doubt on the haunting, the family, and Alice as they knew her. Secrets are discovered, and the narrative switches to a distressing family drama, then flips again when the family visits the site of Alice’s death. Filled with the sadness and grief of a family losing their daughter and also losing the image they had of her, Lake Mungo expertly mixes in dread and shock and should be in any horror fan’s library.
This 1981 horror thriller is criminally underrated despite featuring one of horror’s biggest icons. Road Games, directed by Richard Franklin, stars Stacy Keach as Patrick Quid, a long-haul truck driver traveling across Australia who picks up hitchhiker Pamela (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), and becomes entangled in the world of a serial killer terrorizing the Australian bush. The killer is murdering women and dismembering them, leaving their body parts strewn along the route that Quid is driving.
Throughout the film, Quid is mistaken for the killer, and serious doubt begins to form in the viewers’ minds – is he the murderer? Oddly dreamlike in places, with genuine suspense and hugely likable characters and performances from the two leads, Road Games is a surprising hidden genre gem that is twisty and compelling and deserves a much wider audience.
[ad_2]
Source link