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Lost Things (2003)
R0 - Australia - Accent Film Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (20th April 2006). |
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The Film
 To many, Australia is a country with sun and beauty, a place that has been a relative outsider when it comes to political turmoil and crisis. Fortunately it´s not all quiet and peaceful, since Australia has also produced some good horror-related films. Too bad for them that Peter Jackson was born in New Zealand, but a few gifted filmmakers have started their careers from the land of Down Under. Peter Weir did such acclaimed thrillers as “The Cars that Ate Paris (1974)”, “Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)”, and “The Last Wave (1977)”, and George Miller did the legendary “Mad Max (1979)” (and also its two sequels, however the third one was largely made in the US). Phillip Noyce also did “Dead Calm (1989)” before moving to Hollywood. None of these movies are pure “horror”, but have their roots strongly placed in suspense and psychological fear, even exploitation ("Mad Max"). When moving more to the horror-genre, Colin Eggleston´s “Long Weekend (1978)” and Russell Mulcahy´s “Razorback (1984)” did a good job of mixing nature and horror, and Richard Franklin´s “Patrick (1978)” and “Roadgames (1981)” concentrated on the people and their dark minds. More recently, Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig´s “Undead (2003)” even tried to take a fresh approach to the zombie-movie, but didn´t fully succeed. To this list you can now add the newcomer; director Martin Murphy, who after a few short films has created his debut feature film, “Lost Things (2003)”. The basic story of “Lost Things” is quite simple; four teenagers go to a remote beach to surf, to have a few beers, and probably make out a bit (there are two girls in the group after all). All this is going to happen under the sun, peacefully and light-hearted. Gary (Leon Ford) and Tracey (Alex Vaughan) are sort of a couple, and Brad (Charlie Garber) is not exactly sure what is going on with him and Emily (Lenka Kripac). When their van is parked near the beach, it´s time to go surf and lay under the sun. Before this they encounter an eyeless mannequin torso in the sand the first clue that something´s wrong at the beach. After this it just gets stranger, when a peculiar man named Zippo (Steve Le Marquand) comes from the woods, and warns that three people were killed on this beach. Bit by bit they start to sense the strange hostility that is surrounding them; they suddenly begin to see each other in the distance almost like mirror images of themselves only staring blankly. They also discover some flowers on the beach, flowers that appear to have been stolen from some graveyard and placed there in the sand. Emily also finds her ring in the sand, like she has been there before. Are these clues of some kind?, and if so, clues for what? Eventually this unsettling atmosphere gets to them, and their bond starts to splinter. They start to argue with each other, and when Emily starts to flirt with Zippo, Brad is no impressed. The relaxed atmosphere from the beginning is changing regularly, and the viewer is sucked into this mixture of psychological horror, fantasy, and a non-linear storyline. “Lost Things” is an ambitious little film, which clearly wants to be more original than some other straightforward horror-films. It sets it's story in a fairly basic setting, and then slowly makes it more akward and scary, intentionally confusing the audience with non-linear storylines and the use of flashbacks and symbolism. The film has a restless feel, which is done with clever editing, and the strong use of sound effects and music. The visual side of the film is generally nicely done - with shots of the beach and its surroundings, and together with music and different camera angles, they make the beach feel quite menacing. It´s like these young people are dropped into another world, which looks quite ordinary at the first glance, but hides some secrets and evil underneath. Unfortunately, in the end the film falls into the “close, but no cigar”-category, meaning that the film has plenty of good stuff and had some potential, but for various reasons it fell short. To me, the biggest problem was that the film didn´t really go anywhere, and failed to be truly scary. I understand that certain “stillness” probably was the basic idea of the film (that stillness hides terrible secrets), but eventually it lost that grip which had been built over the first part of the film, and like it often is when you lose that grip from the audience, you can't easily reclaim it. I personally felt that certain opportunities were lost, and when some new twists arrived at the end, it was already too late. The actors were pretty good in the film for the mostly newcomers, but the character Zippo was something that didn´t fully work, at least for me. The filmmakers seemed like they couldn´t make up their minds how they should portray this character, and now he´s not truly scary or menacing, nor very interesting either. He´s just too vaguely written a character to serve a purpose in the film, which should keep its audience glued to their seats. Zippo probably worked better in the screenplay than in the actual film, and that can be said for the whole film, when you really think about it. “Lost Things” is a very low budget film, since the principal photography was shot in 10 days. After that the film was in post-production and shelved for over a year, mostly due to financial problems, and then eventually 2 days of additional shooting were done to complete the film. The film was shot with a small crew in Super 16 mm, and then eventually blown-up to 35 mm, which gives a slightly grainy look to the movie. Cinematographer Justine Kerrigan can be happy of her work in the movie, since making the ordinary beach look “scary” is not an easy task, adding also the fact that the film is mainly shot in the daylight. Some “night scenes” were also shot during the day, which was due to the very rapid shooting schedule. This “day-for-night” method is not an ideal way to create believable night scenes, but they blend relatively well to the film. Many shots are also done using a hand-held camera, making the visual side look more restless. A certain “independent film” -feel is in the air when you watch the movie, which in this case works in two ways. Keeping the film simple was a smart and economical way to make it quickly, but obviously it looks rushed in some ways, and probably would´ve benefited from a few extra scenes, additional time, and of course money. It´s still a fresh film, including a few creepy moments, but eventually it doesn´t take you deep enough. Not deep enough to make you really scared and disturbed. Not deep enough to make it a really memorable experience. It has played at many film festivals though, and has apparently been sold in over 20 countries, and I have a feeling that it works best in some film festivals at midnight, when you see it properly on the big screen, and then take a walk on the lonely beach afterwards. Now the comfortable couch doesn´t quite take you to that lonely, remote beach.
Video
The film is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and it´s very pleasant to the eye. Since the film has originally been shot in Super 16 mm, there´s a certain amount of film grain, and the film has that “edgy look” that 16 mm often provides. Colours are slightly desaturated, which makes some scenes look a bit unnatural. These all support the general feel of the film, and I didn´t find any major issues from the transfer, it simply looks good. “Dual layer” disc is coded “R0” (even when the back cover says “R4”), and it runs 80:12 min (PAL). The cover says “Director´s Edition”, which probably means that the director Murphy was involved with the audio commentary etc, rather than this being some kind of “Director´s Cut” (in the audio commentary he clearly says, that they had to make the film at least 80 minutes long - which they did). There are 12 chapters.
Audio
The disc includes two audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. There are no subtitles at all, which is of course always a bit disappointing, since “HoH”-subtitles should always be included. I chose the 5.1-track, which is very solid indeed. The strange mixture of sound effects and music is an essential part of the film, and they´re nicely presented. Rear channels are very active, and “industrial” type of sound effects often fill the room, creating more tension. All in all, a well balanced and dynamic audio track, which also uses many good directional surround-effects.
Extras
The main extra is an audio commentary with director Martin Murphy, and producer Ian Iveson. Their commentary is quite informative and easy to listen to, although they have a habit to whisper and mumble from time to time (and tell dry jokes). Interesting info is shared about the locations (the film was mostly shot in the beach near Sydney), actors (Steve Le Marquand hurt his hand in an accident just before the film, so that´s the reason why he has a cast on his hand), shooting conditions (it was actually October, so there was cold at night, and lots of flies everywhere), and product placement (the beer was the only sponsored product, but they still had to cover the label). To me the technical issues are always interesting, so Murphy and Iveson reveal how the film was shot in Super 16 mm, and after some digital corrections to the transfer it was finally scanned into 35 mm. One anecdote is, that they made the skin tones warmer in post-production with some scenes, since due to the cold weather the tones originally had a colder look. The “day-for-night” method is also being discussed. They also didn´t have time to shoot scenes such as surfing, so that´s the main reason why you don´t see them actually surf in the film. Overall, a solid audio commentary is provided, with interesting info about the production, and also motives and goals of the story. A very good addition is also “Nightride (1997)” -short film, directed and written by Murphy, running 10:58 minutes. The film is presented in non-Anamorphic (approx.) 1.85:1, and with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. This was the AFTRS (Australian Film, Television and Radio School) graduate film for Murphy, and is actually very good. This film tells about a young man who´s going to catch a bus at nighttime. First he only meets some drunken men fooling around, but soon he´ll have to face the real horror, when one person on the bus is turning out to be a masked serial killer, eventually highjacking the bus and killing some of the passengers. An entertaining and intense short film, with good production values. “Interviews” -featurette runs 10:36 minutes, and involves most of the people from the production. Along with director Murphy, producer Ian Iveson, and lead actors Leon Ford, Alex Vaughan, Charlie Garber, and Lenka Kripac (only Steve Le Marquand is absent), the interviews also include cinematographer Justine Kerrigan, writer Stephen Sewell, costume designer Theresa Jackson, editors Benita Carey and Karen Johnson, continuity person Julia Boros, and production designer Karla Urizar. This amount of interviews crammed into the 10 minutes slot makes this featurette a bit rushed (also technically speaking), and doesn´t really give the same information as the audio commentary does. It´s also disappointing how little some people get to say about the film. Still, I´m glad that it´s available, since here you get to hear from the writer also (who has written the cult film “The Boys (1998)”). Theatrical trailer for the film runs 1:26 minutes, and there´s also several bonus trailers: - "Heavy" (2:34 min) - "Bus 174" (1:03) - "Birthday Boy" (2:00) - "The Tasty Bust" (2:17) - "Criminal Lovers" (0:30) - "Persona Non Grata" (2:34) - "My Flesh And Blood" (2:07) - "The Cremaster - The Order Cycle" (3:38 ) The extras don´t have any subtitles either.
Overall
If you´re waiting to see a truly effective and scary independent horror-film, that would make you praise the filmmakers as new hopes for the genre, and give the films like “The Descent (2005)” a run for their money, you´ll probably be disappointed. But if you just want to see a solid little psychological horror-film, with a few good scares here and there, along with good visual and sound design, “Lost Things” might be the film for you. In any case, and despite its faults, it´s a film worth seeing and to spend 80 minutes of your life with. For more info, please visit the homepage of Accent Film Entertainment.
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