Animals

Directed by: Douglas Aarniokoski

Starring: Marc Blucas, Naveen Andrews, Nicci Aycox, Eva Amurri

Synopsis:

Jarret (Blucas) was once the High School football hero, leading his team to victory in the Championship. But his dreams of a NFL career were cruelly cut short by an injury whilst at college. Now he’s a down-at-heel steel mill worker, drifting through existence, with only his best friend’s bar as a refuge – and a reminder of his past glories. Into his life slinks Lorna, a hot blonde who boils the blood of any male who comes near her. Lorna is a werewolf, on the run from her sociopathic mate Vic…

Review:

Craig Skipp and John Spector are a writing duo who made a big splash back in the late 80’s/early 90’s as the fore-runners of “Splatterpunk”, a horror genre which poured on the gore. Animals has been adapted for the screen by Craig Skipp from one of their stories, and is sure to pique the interest of anyone who is familiar with their work. Most of the elements work very well, but the bits that don’t work are pretty significant. The film’s main problems lie in some of the pacing and the animal transformation scenes.

The main cast are really good, especially Lost’s Naveen Andrews, who gets to have a lot of fun – even more than he had in Planet of Terror – at chewing the scenery as well as a few corpses. The dysfunctional relationship between Vic and Lorna are at the heart of the film and its these scenes which work best.

Marc Blucas does okay as Jarret, moping around and hating how his life has turned out. His best friend who owns that bar he hangs out in has put up all his old trophies, game shirt and newspaper articles as a kind of shrine to his hero, but to Jarret it’s just a reminder of how things could have turned out if he hadn’t been injured.

Although the full transformation fx are pretty rubbish – a sort of sketched CGI/cel animation – other fx work very well. As you’d expect from a piece by the Splatterpunk duo, there is plenty of the red stuff on show, and a couple of gory throat-rippings to keep things nice and visceral. There’s also a nice effect with contact lenses showing Jarret attain new night-vision powers.

Nicki Aycox is great as Lorna. She’d been turned by Vic but complains that she hates him because of what he did to her. However she has no qualms about doing the same and turning Jarret.

There’s a great twist late on (although if you’d been paying attention at the start of the film, you’d have seen it much earlier), which is almost spoilt by the rubbish fx, but it works in that it makes you reconsider some earlier scenes from a new perspective, concerning Lorna’s motivations.

Other than the crappy transformed creature fx, the film also suffers from too much narration. If you've read my review of Perrier's Bounty, you'll be aware that this has become something of a bug-bear with me. There isn't a hell of a lot of narration in Animals , but still it is completely superfluous as it is telling us stuff the film has already shown us. We don't need Marc Blucas telling us all about his football career, because the film takes the time to linger over the trophy cabinet and newspaper clippings. We don't need to be told the bar's owner is his Jarret's best friend because he tells us himself.

Verdict

There are a few areas which just don't work, but then there is a hell of a lot which does. Naveen Andrews in particular holds the whole thing together with a great charismatic and psychotic performance.

6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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