By: Frank

 

Bullying tusks not withstanding, Razorback — Australia's 1984 go at beast-gone-wild horror done down under — is ultimately more concerned with the fear of humans than oversized, mud-grubbing animals. But Jaws fans can take comfort in the knowledge that the ostensible star, the deadly boar, is exploited to some degree in this gorgeously shot horror film directed by Russell Mulcahy, the man behind the action-fantasy classic Highlander.

 

Two Hollywood-style plots are tied up in a snug knot; one a thriller involving an American in Australia searching for answers regarding his missing wife who instead finds himself targeted by a pair of twisted backwater fucks; the other a simplistic Jaws-like tale involving the same American fighting off a boar-on-'roids set loose in the outback. Obviously shot for both U.S. and Aussie markets (though grossing a measly $50,000 in the states), it plays with equal success on the fears of rural travel (à la Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and the terror of the exotic wild.

 

 

What’s clear from the beginning, though, is that a couple of the Aussie locals are more alarming than the boar, namely the brothers who work at the grim Petpak kangaroo cannery (inexplicably, they are the only employees of the relatively large factory.) Armed with guns and all the suave of Sid Vicious, these bozo-psychos represent the woman-raping, cute animal-dicing contingency of their swath of the old outback. Dicko Baker (David Argue) does a gold star job nailing an obnoxious psychopathy reminiscent of the apocalyptic bad guys of Mad Max's world. Without Argue, Razorback would be left a husk of story, as forgettable as the dozens of other clones that surfed the wake of Jaws' door-sized dorsal fin.

 

 

As husks go, though, this one would be quite beautiful. Aussie cinematographer extraordinaire Dean Sempler created a midnight treat for the eyes with Razorback, going well beyond what was necessary for an exercise in escapist thrills. The film is one densely atmospheric image after another, backlit and shot through vivid filters. It's a Mario Bava-esque gothic vision in anamorphic widescreen. Orange horizons spread through obtuse buildings and metal-strewn dunes during the day, while at night blue moonbeams cast on cockeyed trees and sounders of boars.

 

Sempler expertly conceives this weird world that makes the foggy Devonshire moors of Sherlock Holmes fame look like a vacationer's paradise. For fans of chilling atmosphere, this is a perfect place to tie up a hammock. The visuals are the single best thing about Razorback. I just feel sorry for the poor sap who manned the sand fan. He must be sitting somewhere in Australia still cleaning under his fingernails and wondering if it was worth it.

 

 

Incidently, Sempler worked (unsurprisingly) on both Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome. He also gussied-up American classics like Young Guns and Apocalypto, as well as Waterworld (which despite a turd reputation, has some brilliant, well-photographed set pieces. Anyone who doesn't agree is wrong. Sorry!)

 

As for the boar, his appearances are boiled down to subplot up until the cheesy showdown that makes up the final minutes of the film. The unrelenting human hunting that audiences got in films like Alligator, Piranha, and Cujo is all but missing in Razorback. The most interesting of the attacks doesn't involve the giant boar at all; instead a group of average-sized razorbacks knock down a windmill at the top of which protagonist Carl Winters (Gregory Harrison) has sought refuge, only to send him flailing into a waterhole, where he quickly and gratefully learns that hoggy-paddling is not on the short list of swine talents.

 

Unfortunately, Razorback treats the eyes better than it treats the intellect. The trite conventions and boring dialog are just didn't do it for this reviewer. There are no twists, no turns, nothing to set it apart from the glut of other killer animal movies. And other than the Baker brothers, the performances are about on par with the script.

 

 

So how good or bad does the giant razorback actually look? We all know that Jaws' Bruce the shark looked like a great white mannequin from some undersea big and tall store for fishes, but the film nevertheless achieved stunning results. Luckily, Mulcahy follows the rule that's as relevant in today's cruddy CGI-soaked world as was in the days of animatronics: show as little of the monster as you can get away with. And it works because the prop appears fairly well made in the first place.

 

Come for the Baker bros. Stay for the visual acumen. And bust out the smoke machine if you want to play along at home.

 

 

Rating: 3/5 Skinned Kangaroo Carcasses

 

 

 

 

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