Dying Breed (2008)

Dying Breed is a poor man's horror movie. It tries very hard to be in the big league with scenes of torture, its use of shock audio cues, the inbred locals, the scary little girl etc, but try as it might it just isn't that scary. One of the reasons for this I would attest is the complete lack of likable characters. We are taken on an expedition with Nina, an Irish scientist following in her sisters footsteps in remote Tasmania on the hunt for the thought to be extinct Tasmanian Tiger. Joining her on this quest is feeble door mat of a boyfriend Matt and his obnoxious and detestable friend Jack and Jack's girlfriend Rebecca. The movie starts with a prologue flashback to a cannibalistic convict known as "The Pieman", we are then informed that the locals are descendants of said convict which might explain why they are all unfriendly.

From here the movie descends into standard "and then there were none" fashion as each member of the group is dispatched from their life in one way or another....and to be honest, in some cases I couldn't wait for it to happen.

The film doesn't quite make it into my detestable horror list as nothing we witness is not done without reason, I should note however, that their is some allusion to multiple rapes and torture that is implied if not implicitly shown, though most of the violence is not overly gratuitous nor overtly sadistic compared to other horror films. Dying Breed does seem to draw comparison to Wolf Creek, but as Wolf Creek IS on my list of detestable horror films I think these comparisons are quite unjust.

I did not detest Dying Breed. I did not overly enjoy it either, but it does have some redeemable features. The scenery is impressive, the camera work is quite good too, it certainly boasts an ambient soundtrack and made some great use of surround sound, most of the acting is on-par with what you would expect and you can't criticize an actor for being annoying if that is their characters flaw. The story was not altogether bad, but it certainly added nothing new to the genre, which is basically what I would say about the film in general.