Killing Ground (2016) [Blu-ray]
Horror | Thriller
A couple's romantic camping trip becomes a desperate fight for survival in this ultra-raw, unhinged kill ride. In need of a break from the pressures of their life in the city, Sam (Harriet Dyer) and Ian (Ian Meadows) head to a remote beach for a weekend
getaway. When they come across an abandoned campsite, with no trace of its occupants, they're concerned. When they discover a lone, traumatized child nearby, they're scared. And when they encounter two local weirdos, they're in for a hell of a bad time.
Unfolding in an innovative, time-scrambling structure, Killing Ground delivers both nerve-shredding suspense and gut-punching realism.
Storyline: A couple's camping trip turns into a frightening ordeal when they stumble across the scene of a horrific crime.
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson, November 13, 2017 Note that this review includes some spoilers.
Eleven years in the making, Damien Power's feature debut Killing Ground tells the frightening tale of two outcasts who terrify two families in the Tasmanian back woods of Gungilee Falls. Ian (Ian Meadows), a medical professional, is taking a
weekend sojourn on New Year's Eve with his girlfriend, Sam (Harriet Dyer), whose a publisher. As they traverse down the two-lane road, Ian realizes that he's forgotten the champagne so he stops over at the local liquor store. There in the parking lot he's
startled by the bark of a hunting dog and encounters its owner, German (Aaron Pedersen), a black-bearded hillbilly. Ian makes the classic mistake of asking the uncongenial-looking stranger for directions to the remote forest. When Ian and Sam arrive en
route to the hiking trail, they immediately spot an SUV parked in the same area. Somewhat disappointed that they won't be by themselves, the young couple also notice a set of lawn chairs and pitched tent on the beach but no occupants. Sam pops the
question out of the blue and Ian accepts her proposal. When an excited Sam tries to call her sister with the news, she discovers that there's no cell coverage (one of the movie's first bad omens). As they get their tent set up, there is a cut to teenage
Em (Tiarnie Coupland) who seems to be based on the same campsite. Em is also on a camping trip with her hippie father Rob (Julian Garner), mother Margaret (Maya Stange), and infant brother Ollie (played by twins Riley and Liam Parkes). Em is prone to
recurring nightmares so she relaxes to music on her iPhone. Rob isn't really a calming presence on her because he tells his family the campfire tale involving the massacre of the Koori people by settlers. The narrative shifts to a pub where German and his
protégé Chook (Aaron Glenane) are inveigling two teen girls to go with them, a foreboding sign of their predatory nature.
Power and his frequent cinematographer Simon Chapman establish Gungilee Falls as a picturesque and sylvan backdrop that is seemingly calm and tranquil. The first three reels of Killing Ground are quite slow and Power only gradually builds an
atmosphere of tension and nerves for the characters. Power's screenplay is non-chronological so the story events are told out of order but they're edited in a way to suggest that the plot strands interlock with each other. Even if viewers are aware of
this non-linear arrangement, the film could have been more suspenseful during the first half hour had it not cut in between scenes with German/Chook and the various campers. Power aims for character exposition in this section but the separateness of the
locales truncates the suspense because the audience sees the two antagonists in their own tumbledown shack and among townspeople, not in the immediate vicinity of the campers. Power may have wanted the nature sounds to serve as red herrings (i.e., lurking
animals about to attack their prey). The back-and-forth editing also shortens information the audience could additionally acquire about the characters. We probably would have learned more had it been told in a linear vein. For example, although we learn
that German is an ex-con, we know little to nothing about Chook and what his motives are for going after everyone in the woods.
German and Chook obviously represent the scum of the outback and their heinous and abominable acts arouse unpleasure for the spectator. Killing Ground turns into a variant of Haneke's two superior Funny Games pictures when the two miscreants
gag and tie three of the characters to trees and set beer cans on their heads for target practice. The torture porn, however, is more implied than it is overtly depicted on screen. The final act emerges as predictable once it's known that Chook has set a
trap. Chook had a prior encounter with Chris Armstrong (Stephen Hunter), an Australian police community officer, and one wonders why Armstrong wouldn't use more precaution or backup personnel for the attempted rescue. As a horror camping film, Killing
Ground is fairly solid but it lags behind Greg McLean's Wolf Creek (2005), which is perhaps the genre's contemporary benchmark.
(Note that the presence of the pig in the film is probably a reference to the Ozploitation classic, Razorback (1984).)
Killing Ground is a well-shot Australian horror camping film that is often violent and uneven. The material becomes muddled and erratic when it tries to weave all the stories together from different time periods. For other offings in this genre, we
recommend High Tension (2003) and The Invitation (2015). You may also want to check out last year's Hounds of Love. Scream Factory delivers a very clean transfer and above-average audio but no extras. Killing Ground is a
wannabe Ozploitation film that earns a SLIGHT RECOMMENDATION for Simon Chapman's photography.
[CSW] -2.2- Gets 1 star for decent acting but the ending is garbage. This story is slow, predictable, and the “plot twists” serve no purpose. Kind of a shame to see decent production (1 more star) and acting put to use on a plot written half heartedly.
Skip it, you’re not missing anything..
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