Carnifex (Sean Lahiff, 2022)

Intent on making a documentary about conservation, videographer Bailey (Alexandra Park) joins conservationists Grace (Sisi Stringer) and Ben (Harry Greenwood) as they track local animal populations after a devastating forest fire.

As they explore the wild, the trio slowly realise that they have stumbled into the hunting ground of an ancient predator...

Ozploitation is one of my favourite genres/time periods of film.

Whenever a new genre movie pops up across the ditch, I am always hopeful for something that will recall the gonzo energy of those movies.

Carnifex is a new creature feature that had a brief cinema run in Australia, and has just been released on physical media and on VOD.

I want to give this movie a pass. There are elements of the production which work against its basic functionality as a scary monster movie, but there are other qualities which keep it on an even keel.

First of all, while we do not get a lot of character development, the central trio were interesting protagonists, particularly Ben and Grace as the conservationists. Greenwood and Stringer get an interesting character game, where Ben has an unspoken crush on his colleague, which carries through the movie. It adds some levity and humanity to some fairly functional exposition sequences.

The characters also have interesting motivations - the scientists want to protect the forest, and so if they find a new species living there, it can be protected from loggers. It means the characters have a reason to stay out in the forest. The characters are also unaware

of the danger until late in the piece, which prevents them from coming off as stock victims who are staying in place solely for the purpose of dying.

The main issue with the movie is its style, or lack thereof. 

There is too much focus on the edit - scenes would benefit from more moving camera as a tool for clarifying geography and building suspense.

Cuts are used for everything, from reactions to an encounter with with local wildlife. When there are so many cuts in a movie like this, it works against viewer immersion. The viewer becomes more aware of the film as shots spliced together, rather than being in a position to experience the film in a visceral way.

For a suspense movie, a mobile camera can do a better job than cutting of hiding and revealing information about the location and characters.

This might be an effect of budget and/or restrictions around the filming location. The movie is almost entirely exteriors, and camera movement takes time to choreograph and shoot, so it could be an effect of limited shooting time.

Despite the lack of camera movement, there are times where it works in the film's favour - there is a lot of emphasis on sound design and offscreen space. The beast is offscreen until the last 10-15 minutes, which adds to the tension.

And sometimes the cutting is effective - the introduction of the carnifex is great, intercutting between Ben explaining the carnifex with the creature attacking one of its victims.

There are a few effective jump scares, and while the body count is low, the characters get put through the ringer with some gnarly-looking injuries.

While it does not work as well as it could, I was kind of onboard with Carnifex. There is an earnestness to it, and the monster is unique. It is one of those genre movies that does not achieve everything that it wants to, but it has some nuggets of gold in it.

Carnifex is not a great movie, but it is a reasonable streaming time-waster.