the jaded viewer

Friday, April 03, 2009

Dying Breed (Review)

Dying Breed

Dying Breed (2008)

Directed by Jody Dwyer

In every continent and in every country it seems everybody has their variation on the redneck cannibals. From France to Italy to England to America to Australia, we all share the common fear that if we go too deep in the woods, or we make that Wrong Turn or go over that hills with eyes, we'll end up cannibal meat.

So Australia's up next in this genre.

And with Dying Breed, it's not breaking any new ground but it's not boring either.

You've seen it all before. Friends go into the backwoods (this time it's the Tasmanian outback) looking a lost tiger, meet up with the redneck, inbred locals who they ridicule and scoff at and proceed to go deeper into the woods (because of course thats fuckin logical).

They than get picked off one by one by a long lost cannibal family or cannibal legend who despises intruders and want to be left alone.

Kills o plenty ensue until you get to your evil wins ending.

It's your typical cannibal rednecks gone primal, but Dying Breed's version isn't all too bad.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Inspired by the legends of a 19th-century cannibal and an extinct tiger, this brutal horror-thriller centers on four friends who find out that something—or someone—murderous lurks in the rain-slogged Australian bush.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Nina is our pseudo final girl whose on a expedition to finish the work of her sister who was searching for a long lost extinct tiger. She brings along her boyfriend Matt, his best bud Jack and his slutty dimwitted girlfriend Rebecca.

Right off the bat, you get your stereotypes on cue. Jack is a total douchebag asshole whose just slurs everyone he talks to. Rebecca plays the brunette blonde girl who you know is probably the first to die (she does).

And Matt is so whipped, he could be at a S&M club.

Once they get to Tasmania, they're fucking shit up. The movie is rather slow, delving into the Australian legend lore of a "Pieman" an escaped prisoner back in the 1800s. It also focuses way to much on this Jumanji search for a tiger.

By the time anything remotely horror related happens, your an hour in and slightly irritated that these cannibal sickos are fuckin slow.

But when they hear their stomachs grumble, Dying Breed gets moving. The kills start off a little dry but get going. A nice sliced face shocks you nicely. The movie trudges along as everybody goes into paranoia mode.

Our campers discover an abandoned shack (which is a staple in these movies) and go all CSI. A nice played out scene has Jack and Matt investigating something cooking in the kitchen. It's clever enough to blindside you as you follow along.

By the time everybody has stopped running we get our exposition plot and the final faceoffs. A bit of semi twistiness shows up in the final climax but any jaded viewer could see that coming. The funny part of Dying Breed at the end is well that it kept ending. There were like 3 times it could have just ended.

Maybe they couldn't decide on the best ending so they put em all in. Who knows.

Dying Breed plays out as a straightforward cannibal inbred mutant movie. It's a little tedious but don't look for The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn 2 or Frontiere(s). It's distinctly Australian and they give their different take on these subgenre.

This may have been the best of the foriegn After Dark Horrorfest III movies.

Gore-ipedia

Arrow in the mouth
Face decap
Bear trap trauma
Cannibal corpsed
Sliced throat
Dental surgery

Nude-ipedia

Some naked back, sorry no boobies

WTF moment

Really? 3 different endings in a span of 6 minutes? Pick one already!

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

Most of the After Dark Horrorfest movies of 2009 completely sucked. None really stood out and Dying Breed is just your run of the mill cannibal rednecks run amok. I can't recommend this movie, but you probably won't listen to me.

So if you need your fix of cannibals, this be it.

Rating: