I happened across this movie by accident on late-night television. Its very low budget is obvious from the start, when you're trying to work out if this is a horror or a comedy. Things just get more confused when the main characters meet the family of vampires inhabiting the strange abandoned house - I'm still not sure whether the characters and events making up the rest of the movie are the work of a surreal genius or of somebody who just couldn't be bothered with logic. Either way, I've never seen a film quite like it. I don't know exactly what audience to recommend it to, although connoisseurs of bad films will no doubt have a field day with it.
3 Reviews
Great Saturday night mad movie
a0925200318 April 2008
This is definitely one of the most bazaar films I've seen in a while. If you like Comedy-B-Vampire Movies, put this on your list. I think the world need a bit more Aussie vampire movies!
Don't look for great acting, exciting SFX, think Rocky picture + Plan 9 from outer space meets the Munsters. The film has no real blood and guts, in fact I don't think any one actually dies, some great villains even a giant Vampire!
Sit back with some friends and have a good laugh, and enjoy a Campy little Indy file that actually has some great ideas and does not take it self to seriously.
Don't look for great acting, exciting SFX, think Rocky picture + Plan 9 from outer space meets the Munsters. The film has no real blood and guts, in fact I don't think any one actually dies, some great villains even a giant Vampire!
Sit back with some friends and have a good laugh, and enjoy a Campy little Indy file that actually has some great ideas and does not take it self to seriously.
Decent entry, if not overtly spectacular
slayrrr66615 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"Outback Vampires" is a decent if unremarkable vampire entry.
**SPOILERS**
Traveling through the Outback, Nick, (Richard Morgan) and Bronco, (Brett Climo) find stranded hitchhiker Lucy, (Angela Kennedy) wandered along the road and offer a lift. Getting stuck when the car breaks down, they wander into a small town and are told that help exists at a local estate run by Sir Alfred Terminus, (John Doyle) who lives with his family, Agatha, (Maggie Blinco) and children George, (David Gibson) and Samantha, (Antonia Murphy) and set off to get their assistance. When they arrive, they are asked to spend the night with them and are quickly clued in that something about them isn't right, and the more time there they realize that the whole family are vampires and use the townspeople as pawns to help lure any passerby into their clutches. Forced into defending themselves, they decide to launch a massive attack on the family when they least expect it.
The Good News: This one here wasn't bad and had some good stuff. The best part to this is the fact that the ending segment of this one is actually quite exciting, which is what was needed as there wasn't a whole lot else to it. The fact that this one has a lot of really great segments in this ending part, as there's a really creepy sequence were they're sneaking into the building in the dead of night with the fog rolling in and not trying to make a sound. There's a really great scene where they stumble across a room full of previous victims laying around, and it has some really great stalking moments through the halls of the home. When it gets out into the wilderness and features the showdown with the giant vampire, it's just goofy enough that it becomes fun. Even the supernatural showdown in the saloon is worthwhile, which is where the fun really starts and soon picks up from there. There's also a really fun encounter with a ravenous crow during a tense chase on a railway cart allows for some more fun. However, what makes it even better is that this is where all the deaths occur, and it's all bloody and quite exciting. There's a graphic neck biting, a decapitation with a meat cleaver, a wooden stake to the chest, a broken bone thrown into the chest and a street sign impaling on top of the head, among other kills. The last good part is the goofy nature of the family during the middle of the film. This happens for their time there in the house, and it's filled with off-beat moments which paint them as oddball characters. From the dinner party to the searching-the-hallways segment and the solo sequences with the travelers, there's a sense of the strange going on and it's quite fun to see these parts. All of these parts are what work for the film.
The Bad News: This one here didn't have a whole lot of things wrong with it, but it has a couple flaws. The main one here is that the film has a really slow-going pace in the beginning. The fact that there's nothing at all going on at all, since the beginning of it contains the scenes of them wandering around the outback talking about the situation or about what the others around town , which isn't all that much fun to be around. That there's also the middle segment of the family running amok with the travelers. Granted, it's weird and fun to be able to see the out-of-control eccentricities of these scenes, but there's really nothing all that horrific about them, and all they do is hold up the pace of the film to a degree that makes the film take a lot longer than normal to get to the vampire tendencies. That's also the film's other big problem, the vampire action doesn't come into the film until about an hour in, leaving a ton of time across the beginning of the film to have nothing going on since it has merely the weirdness to keep the interest going on. That also accounts for the film's decided lack of blood-lust, which for a vampire film is somewhat of a disappointment. If these can be overcome, this one isn't that bad.
The Final Verdict: Some goofy fun if a little unspectacular at times, this one here is certainly far from being the worst vampire film around. Give it a shot if you're in the mood for this kind of film, have a predilection for Australian horror or the plain interested, while those who can't stand the cheese should heed caution.
Rated R: Language and Violence
**SPOILERS**
Traveling through the Outback, Nick, (Richard Morgan) and Bronco, (Brett Climo) find stranded hitchhiker Lucy, (Angela Kennedy) wandered along the road and offer a lift. Getting stuck when the car breaks down, they wander into a small town and are told that help exists at a local estate run by Sir Alfred Terminus, (John Doyle) who lives with his family, Agatha, (Maggie Blinco) and children George, (David Gibson) and Samantha, (Antonia Murphy) and set off to get their assistance. When they arrive, they are asked to spend the night with them and are quickly clued in that something about them isn't right, and the more time there they realize that the whole family are vampires and use the townspeople as pawns to help lure any passerby into their clutches. Forced into defending themselves, they decide to launch a massive attack on the family when they least expect it.
The Good News: This one here wasn't bad and had some good stuff. The best part to this is the fact that the ending segment of this one is actually quite exciting, which is what was needed as there wasn't a whole lot else to it. The fact that this one has a lot of really great segments in this ending part, as there's a really creepy sequence were they're sneaking into the building in the dead of night with the fog rolling in and not trying to make a sound. There's a really great scene where they stumble across a room full of previous victims laying around, and it has some really great stalking moments through the halls of the home. When it gets out into the wilderness and features the showdown with the giant vampire, it's just goofy enough that it becomes fun. Even the supernatural showdown in the saloon is worthwhile, which is where the fun really starts and soon picks up from there. There's also a really fun encounter with a ravenous crow during a tense chase on a railway cart allows for some more fun. However, what makes it even better is that this is where all the deaths occur, and it's all bloody and quite exciting. There's a graphic neck biting, a decapitation with a meat cleaver, a wooden stake to the chest, a broken bone thrown into the chest and a street sign impaling on top of the head, among other kills. The last good part is the goofy nature of the family during the middle of the film. This happens for their time there in the house, and it's filled with off-beat moments which paint them as oddball characters. From the dinner party to the searching-the-hallways segment and the solo sequences with the travelers, there's a sense of the strange going on and it's quite fun to see these parts. All of these parts are what work for the film.
The Bad News: This one here didn't have a whole lot of things wrong with it, but it has a couple flaws. The main one here is that the film has a really slow-going pace in the beginning. The fact that there's nothing at all going on at all, since the beginning of it contains the scenes of them wandering around the outback talking about the situation or about what the others around town , which isn't all that much fun to be around. That there's also the middle segment of the family running amok with the travelers. Granted, it's weird and fun to be able to see the out-of-control eccentricities of these scenes, but there's really nothing all that horrific about them, and all they do is hold up the pace of the film to a degree that makes the film take a lot longer than normal to get to the vampire tendencies. That's also the film's other big problem, the vampire action doesn't come into the film until about an hour in, leaving a ton of time across the beginning of the film to have nothing going on since it has merely the weirdness to keep the interest going on. That also accounts for the film's decided lack of blood-lust, which for a vampire film is somewhat of a disappointment. If these can be overcome, this one isn't that bad.
The Final Verdict: Some goofy fun if a little unspectacular at times, this one here is certainly far from being the worst vampire film around. Give it a shot if you're in the mood for this kind of film, have a predilection for Australian horror or the plain interested, while those who can't stand the cheese should heed caution.
Rated R: Language and Violence
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