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60%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #5,002
...out of 20,725 movies
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A vicious wild boar terrorizes the Australian outback. The first victim is a small child who is killed. The child's granddad is brought to trial for killing the child but acquitted. The next victim is an American TV-journalist. Her husband Carl gets there and starts to search for the truth. The local inhabitants won't really help him, but he is joined by a hunter and a female farmer to find the beast.
--IMDb
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One of my favorite movies growing up was this Australian giant pig movie. I remember after the first time I watched it, I was in school the next day telling all my friends about it. No one had heard of it. I was quite disappointed, because the movie was so damn cool! Now, I just feel that it's an overlooked gem that I had the privilege to enjoy since its 1984 debut on home video.
We start out in the Australian outback one evening when a man is putting his young grandson to sleep. A giant razorback rumbles out of the darkness, crashing through the house and takes the boy away into the night, leaving the grandfather injured and wandering around screaming for the lost boy. Most of the plot is set up before the opening credits even roll. The grandfather, Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr) is tried for the murder of his grandson, but found innocent and his pursuit of the razorback that no one believes in, begins.
From America comes animal rights activist and reporter Beth Winters (Judy Morris), who is doing a report on the slaughter of the kangaroos in a small town that houses a pet food packing plant. She winds up on the wrong side of some bad characters and goes missing. Our star, Carl Winters (Gregory Harrison) arrives himself soon after to investigate the disappearance of his wife. We are soon to find out that Jake Cullen and Carl have a lot more in common than they would like to believe.
This was director Russell Mulcahy's first feature film after directing MTV videos (including the first video ever aired on MTV, "Video Killed The Radio Star"). And his faster editing skills, along with brilliant lighting effects raised the bar of films to follow. The film is fast paced, and each character is someone you get to put some emotion behind. At times, looking at the film now, it almost has some art house moments (especially during the dream sequences), but none of the pretentiousness of said type of film. Russell knew what type of movie he wanted from the beginning, it's just his flair for the dramatic that shines throughout.
Cutting to the quick, this is just a really damn cool flick that needs to be watched and appreciated by as many horror fans as humanly possible. It's the type of film that you can watch many times and never get sick of it. As a matter of fact, it seems as though you notice something new in it with each new viewing.
If you can get it, the R2 release from Anchor Bay is the DVD to get. There is an American release, but it's only available through Warner Archive and is expensive, and probably has no extras. The R2 Anchor Bay release has plenty of goodies including a widescreen transfer, theatrical trailer, a featurette, cast biographies, a stills gallery and film notes.
You need to own this film and share it with as many horror buffs as you can! 10/10.
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