"Dark Age" is a thoroughly enjoyable monster movie with an environmentalist twist. It paints some of its strokes a little broadly, but just when it seems to be settling into an entirely predictable formula, it still has tricks up its sleeve.
This monster movie is basically a cautionary tale, but for once, it's not about the hazards of radiation creating mutated (read: bigger) deadly creatures. You see, crocodiles come so big and so dangerous in Outback Australia that there is no need for science fiction. Rather, the story is about white Australia not paying heed to the customs, and warnings, of Aboriginal people. Aborigines had (and in some places, still have) a traditional way of life based on respect for living things. The "numanwari" - a giant fresh-water crocodile - is penance for our sins against nature.
The movie features one killing that I doubt many will see coming, and many more will switch off afterwards. It's not often you can't believe your eyes in a horror movie.
Strange to say, then, that the movie also features well worn territory, like the stuffy big wig from the city with no concept of the threat he is working with because he is too busy pushing pens around, so he requires the handsome country boy - a very pre-"Wolf Creek" John Jarratt - to agree to take all responsibility.
That character is such a cliché I was glad he was given short shrift. More convincing was one of our best character actors, Max Phipps (RIP), as a brutal redneck out for crocodilian blood.
David Gulpilil, another national treasure, benefits the movie through his presence, but there is also an Aboriginal elder - Burnam Burnam - who, of course, provides the dire and unheeded warnings.
I'm not entirely sure what I think of his performance. He speaks a strange broken English, made all the more strange by the fact that the actor appears to know better speech. It sounds forced. While it's true that Aboriginal Australians, especially those from remote areas, have a distinct patois that may sound alien to other English speakers, I'm unconvinced that there are many who speak as he does.
All up, "Dark Age" is one of those movies that you can easily pick at for its silliness, or be impressed at for its bravery and inventiveness. It can just as easily be called a cliché-fest as a horror movie that goes where few others have. Which movie you watch and respond to will be up to you.
This monster movie is basically a cautionary tale, but for once, it's not about the hazards of radiation creating mutated (read: bigger) deadly creatures. You see, crocodiles come so big and so dangerous in Outback Australia that there is no need for science fiction. Rather, the story is about white Australia not paying heed to the customs, and warnings, of Aboriginal people. Aborigines had (and in some places, still have) a traditional way of life based on respect for living things. The "numanwari" - a giant fresh-water crocodile - is penance for our sins against nature.
The movie features one killing that I doubt many will see coming, and many more will switch off afterwards. It's not often you can't believe your eyes in a horror movie.
Strange to say, then, that the movie also features well worn territory, like the stuffy big wig from the city with no concept of the threat he is working with because he is too busy pushing pens around, so he requires the handsome country boy - a very pre-"Wolf Creek" John Jarratt - to agree to take all responsibility.
That character is such a cliché I was glad he was given short shrift. More convincing was one of our best character actors, Max Phipps (RIP), as a brutal redneck out for crocodilian blood.
David Gulpilil, another national treasure, benefits the movie through his presence, but there is also an Aboriginal elder - Burnam Burnam - who, of course, provides the dire and unheeded warnings.
I'm not entirely sure what I think of his performance. He speaks a strange broken English, made all the more strange by the fact that the actor appears to know better speech. It sounds forced. While it's true that Aboriginal Australians, especially those from remote areas, have a distinct patois that may sound alien to other English speakers, I'm unconvinced that there are many who speak as he does.
All up, "Dark Age" is one of those movies that you can easily pick at for its silliness, or be impressed at for its bravery and inventiveness. It can just as easily be called a cliché-fest as a horror movie that goes where few others have. Which movie you watch and respond to will be up to you.