Button Man
Directed by Josh Todaro
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Director Josh Todaro’s quick horror movie Button Man (Australia, 2021) is a supernatural riff on the rumors a couple of real-life one that lives as a hermit in Australia’s Victorian Excessive Nation, the place a number of folks have gone lacking or been discovered useless through the previous couple of years. Ascribing otherworldly occasions to a real crime state of affairs for a movie is certain to be controversial — The Springfield Three (U.S., 2020) being one instance — however Todaro and his cowriters Jamie “Pees” Lehman and David McKinnar take that fanciful route for this quick. The result’s a stable addition to the subgenre of “Don’t go within the woods!” fear-fare cinema.
Jade (Stephanie Panozzo) has talked her sister Lydia (Melissa Claire) into becoming a member of her for an tour into the Excessive Nation for some sibling bonding, which incorporates attempting to get Lydia’s thoughts off of her ex-boyfriend. Jade has introduced alongside their mom’s home-movie digital camera from when the pair had been youngsters, and when Jade first movies Lydia, she thinks she sees one thing unusual, however isn’t positive. As the 2 go deeper into the wild, odd occurrences preserve taking place, culminating in a nighttime encounter with Button Man (Don Bridges), who appears to have powers unexplainable by trendy science.
Todaro helms Button Man admirably, and he’s tremendously aided by his solid and crew. The pacing is spectacular, beginning off by giving viewers stunning establishing photographs of the Excessive Nation courtesy of cinematographers Lehman and McKinnar, and establishing the sisterly dynamic between the 2 leads, with Panozzo and Claire exhibiting wonderful chemistry collectively, earlier than steadily rising the suspense and diving into the excessive strangeness.
Sylvan horror quick Button Man does a first-rate job of tapping into primal fears and the considered being remoted and helpless deep within the wild. It’s ripe for being fleshed out right into a full-length characteristic, for which Todaro exhibits the expertise and potential.
Rip-off
Directed by Cameron McCulloch
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
It has been a protracted highway from script to display for author/director Cameron McCulloch’s microbudget characteristic Rip-off (Australia, 2021). What began off as taking on a college lecturer on a type of problem in early 2001 grew to become a totally realized movie solely this yr, as taking pictures occurred 20 years in the past however a few of the footage was put into storage after a fireplace and different footage was found through the 2020 lockdown, after which solid member Nathan Hill — a prolific actor and director — started modifying the movie. Hill has performed a fabulous job piecing collectively what stays of the footage, and even when Rip-off just isn’t fully what McCulloch initially supposed, his enthusiasm and expertise on the helm (and in a supporting position) are evident.
In all probability essentially the most recognizable solid member in Rip-off is Kestie Morassi, who appeared in Darkness Falls (2003) earlier than occurring to Wolf Creek (2005) and quite a few different initiatives, together with the upcoming fright-fare outing The Surrogate (2021). In Rip-off, she portrays Kim, a rip-off artist who desires to maneuver up the ranks in her father’s (Ian Rooney) group however is thwarted by his promotion of soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Ben (Stuart Orr). She takes on the drifting Matthew (Carter Doyle) as a protégé, and the movie then introduces as many characters and subplots as a Shakespeare play. The performances vary from robust to surroundings chewing, however nobody within the movie may be accused of not giving it their all.
McCulloch has amassed a powerful record of credit since first engaged on Rip-off together with directing the horror shorts Expensive John (2010) and Residence (2010), the latter of which appeared as a section within the anthology Zombieworld (2015). He clearly made Rip-off to entertain, and it does that properly. From humorous dialogue together with a scene about an costly, imported mustard to a great deal of motion, intrigue, violence, and a few horror-worthy gore and sensible results, McCulloch’s labor of affection delivers the Ozploitation items.
Evaluations by Joseph Perry
Button Man and Rip-off each display as a part of Monster Fest, which runs December 2–12, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. For extra info, go to https://www.monsterfest.com.au/.
