With all of the coverage of Not Quite Hollywood and Acolytes - a documentary about Australian genre film and a new Australian horror film, respectively - running in these pages recently I've just been reminded that we've somehow neglected to say even a single word about Dying Breed, another new Australian horror film. Making the oversight rather more surprising is that the film actually screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, which you'd think would have called it to our attention ...
Dying Breed works from the most basic of horror film premises, the group of young students placed in a remote environment where they are victimized by forces beyond their understanding or control. In this case the environment is the island of Tasmania and the group of students trying to prove the existence of a rare animal believed to be extinct. The victimizing force? The wildly inbred progeny of a notorious, cannibalistic killer who view outsiders as both food and breeding stock. Yes, the basic elements are familiar but people keep doing it because in the right hands it keeps working.
Press response to the film has been solid and we've got the trailer below the break in the ScreenAnarchy Player.