Razorback

This visually flashy yet difficult-to-make-out Ozploitation Animal-Attack picture plays like an underdeveloped hybrid of A Cry in the Dark, Wake in Fright, and Cujo. The story has many protagonists who all come into contact with a vicious giant wild boar that kills and maims and causes havoc in a small community in the Australian outback. The film was based on Peter Brennan's 1981 novel, which I assume was inspired at least in part by Azaria Chamberlain, whose dingo ordeal and public legal case were chronicled in the book and film Evil Angels (AKA A Cry in the Dark). The screenplay is by Everett De Roche, the American-Australian who penned the Ozploitation classics Long Weekend, Patrick, and Roadgames. It was the feature debut of music video director Russell Mulcahy, who two years later would strike gold with his fantasy action-adventure with Sean Connery playing an Egyptian Spaniard immortal, Highlander—which, despite its initial box office failure, spawned a multimedia franchise. Razorback lacks the fun of a bonkers movie like Highlander and the genuine suspense of a solid low-budget indie like Roadgames. The fact that it has rotating main characters keeps the picture from stagnating, and Mulcahy's music video aesthetic provides the film with lots of eye-catching visuals. However, most of the lighting in these dazzling shots by cinematographer Dean Semler (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior) is completely unmotivated and just there to look cool. Ultimately, movies like this live or die by how good their monster is, and The Razorback, created by Australian celebrity medic and special effects artist Bob McCarron, is never on screen long enough for us to feel terrified. This isn't a case like Jaws, where we must wait for the monster's reveal; we never get to see this beast in ways that instill fear into our hearts.