MIFF 2007 Sat 4 Aug

OUT OF THE BLUE (dir Robert Sarkies, New Zealand, 2006)

This confronting and moving docu-drama details the events of a 1990 massacre in the New Zealand village of Aramoana, in which thirteen people died at the hands of resident David Gray (Matthew Sunderland), an unemployed farmhand, a loner, and a gun collector.

Boasting stunning cinematography and confident direction, the film slowly builds to the fateful events of November 13-14, when Gray stalked the town overnight, shooting at anyone who crossed his path. The lead performance by Sunderland is excellent; providing glimpses of humanity among the madness, so that while one doesn't feel sympathy for the character, there are nonetheless flashes of empathy for him (such as a scene early in the film where a terrified Gray hides from the postie, imagining her knock on the door to be armed police with baying dogs). Conversely, a scene where he sits down impassively to eat after shooting his victims conveys the character's almost total lack of empathy and humanity.

The film's style, too, is notable, making good use of visual narrative to convey, for instance, in a scene where Gray sits indoors smoking yet is hidden from view, just how isolated from and invisible to those around him he is.

Nor does Out of the Blue pull its punches. It's a harrowing film, and doesn't shy away from shocking the audience; however it is thankfully never gratuitous, retaining compassion for its viewers as much as the real-life survivors of the event. Skillful lighting, structure and editing build the pressure to almost unbearable levels, but avoid traditional thriller cliches; matched by the screenplay's need for narrative concerns, such as scenes where we revisit an elderly woman huddled on her kitchen floor as the killer stalks outside.

A powerful film that reduced me to tears and numbed shock, and a remarkable cinematic triumph that doesn't attempt to explain or rationalise the terrible events of 1990, but presents them to us in a starkly poetic and minimal way, as to ensure that we will never forget them.

SNOOP DOG'S HOOD OF HORROR (dir Stacy Title, USA, 2006)

Schlock horror at its simultaneous best and worst, this blackly comic and very bloody trilogy of modern morality tales tried to catch the timbre of the old EC Comics but failed to do so in any meaningful way. Rapper Snoop Dogg plays our supernatural narrator, a cocky Crypt Keeper, as nasty things happen to nasty people: graf artists impale themselves on their own bottles of booze, Southern white racists get what they deserve. Nothing about this film was especially new, or especially good, save for some excellent animated sequences, and while Hood of Horror provided a few laughs, its grand guignol approach lacked wit or bite, and the script left me extremely unsatisfied. So much so, in fact, that I walked out - my first early exit of the festival. Next!

OUT OF THE BLUE: Four stars
SNOOP DOG'S HOOD OF HORROR: One and a half stars