Razorback

From the technical point of view, Razorback is extremely outdated. The filmmaking methods of expressing anxiety and fear through camerawork and editing, at the time creative, cool and impressive, are now the ridiculous and distracting stuff of dated B-movies. And that is the difference between visionary filmmakers who can still make genre movies work (Spielberg) and temporary hitmakers who stayed stuck in one genre season (Mulcahy). Imagine Jaws having such music and camera tricks… Razorback’s surrealistic set decorations and atmosphere, however, appealed to me even today. A slightly more perverse Edgar Allan Poe(tics). (08.04.2019)

Had it maintained the level of the first twenty minutes, it would have been one of the purest animal B-movies of the 80s trash era. The work with a truly haunting environment is simply superb and it is fully evident why Mulcahy and especially Dean Semler would go on to become quite a respected creative duo in Hollywood. The scenes with the hog are also hilarious and imaginative throughout the film (I would even classify the killing in the car as one of the gems of natural horror), and it’s also pleasing to see an attempt to promote the boorishness and carnage of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Unfortunately, an idiotic male protagonist enters the scene, the script takes a boring relationship path and rapes the viewer's intelligence with every action and line from the pair of uninteresting rednecks. The editing is often messy, which is especially evident in the final fight with the monster, leaving only a hilarious soundtrack, inventive cinematography and, of course, a pig that never looks downright ridiculous. It should get 2*, but I’m rounding up for the intro and a couple of good ideas. (18.01.2018)

This is a very impressive movie visually, full of hazy plains shrouded in unnaturally bright vivid colors (including a few surrealist dreamlike sequences), which compensates for the quite simple plot and weak suspense (the atmospheric horror scenes in the movie, however, are quite good). However, the kangaroo murdering rednecks got too much screen time for my liking. The Razorback should have been munching on them half an hour sooner. (11.04.2019)

I've seen a few animal horror films with bloodthirsty boars, but they were all from the 21st century, so I was curious about this slightly older piece. The biggest stumbling block in the case of Razorback is the absolutely appalling acting by (practically) everyone involved, and a pretty stupid script. We don’t get to see that much of the grunting beast, which can be forgiven given the time the film was made. But still, not to cast aspersions, I really liked the art design of the outdoor scenes, which in a raw magical way perfectly complemented the atmosphere of the arid and inhospitable environment of the Australian outback. (02.08.2020)

The Australian movie Boar definitely has the potential to become a cult movie. The movie’s special effects and practical effects are great, and there are other scenes with some almost abstract images that you might not expect in what is effectively a B-movie. Boar is a very good horror movie and cinematic experience in general. (23.06.2020)