OUT NOW: The Tank (Scott Walker)

 When a couple (Luciane Buchanan and Matt Whelan) inherit a mysterious beachfront property, they find their sudden fortune may not be all that it seems.

There is something on this property that does not want them there. And it seems to be coming from the water tank…

Made in New Zealand for the international market, The Tank is a no-frills, “don’t bore us get to the gore-us” creature feature.

Perhaps it is my own self-consciousness around my mixed accent, but I spent most of the movie marvelling at all the Kiwi actors with American accents.

Existing in the same uncanny valley as M3gan and the Slumber Party Massacre reboot, The Tank ups the ante on those stabs at creating Americana by setting itself in the seventies. That backdrop provides some aesthetic pleasures in terms of the cars and the costumes, but the only other reason for this choice seems to be getting rid of cellphones.

The Tank is an odd beast.

It starts out with a pleasing level of earnestness towards its familiar set up - introducing the characters with skills that will be important later on; introduce the macguffin; put our characters in an isolated location; turn out the lights etc...

It is not particularly exciting, but it gets the job done.

Once the tank is opened, and whatever is down there starts making trouble, it builds some decent tension - especially when our heroes are neck deep inside the shadowy tank.

So it does what it says on the tin - there is a scary tank - but when the monsters appear, the movie fumbles.

There is a visual incoherence to the monster attacks (over-cutting, no sense of geography between the actors and the monsters), and it is even worse during the climax in the tank, when that lack of geography is amplified by low lighting.

Early on, this feels like a deliberate choice - a way to obscure and preserve the mystery of the unseen antagonists. But the final battle was so frustrating to watch that I could not figure out what was going on until the scene was over.

In the leads, Buchanan and Whelan are fine - they feel a little restricted by the decision to set the story in the USA. Their accents are good, but it sometimes feels like that verisimilitude is at the expense of emotional expressiveness.

The Tank is vaguely involving throughout (Weta's monster design is creepy; Buchanan’s MacGyver-style plan of attack in the tank is great), but there is something a little lifeless and undercooked about the whole enterprise. 

If you enjoy something I wrote, and want to support my writing, here’s a link for tips!