THRILLER; 1hr 29min
STARRING: Damian de Montemas, Sophie Lowe, Kestie Morassi, Simon Stone, Mark Leonard Winter, Ashley Zukerman
Bushwhacked: de Montemas
In a one-way serve of rough justice, four masked attackers (Lowe, Morassi, Stone and Zukerman) and one reluctant accomplice (Winter) force a music teacher (de Montemas) to swallow a bottle of sedatives in his isolated bushland home. They work with the fast, cold efficiency of conviction to avenge the suicide of a friend with the death of the man they believe is responsible. To say that everything goes wrong after that is to make an art form of understatement: in the crash-and-burn of unexpected consequences, every step they take is an irreversible slide.
Writer-director Michael Henry keeps the suspense dials spinning flat out for the first hour or so, fumbles with them for a spell as the gang splinters and loses its cool — repetitive yelling alert! — then tightens his grip for the final, tense developments. The ensemble cast, on the other hand, is at full clip all the way, as much in what their keyed-up characters silently imply as in the actions they take that can never be undone.
