RAZORBACK (1984)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: M
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Russell MulCahy
Cast: Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, David Argue, Gregory Harrison, Judy Morris
I do love me some killer animal terrors, and this 80's Aussie entry is one I saw on cable back in the day on one of those teen-aged all-nite horror jags fueled by bowls of buttery ramen noodles and sugary soda. For a longtime I couldn't remember all that much from that original viewing all those years ago other than some cool big-pig carnage and some strangely surreal visuals, you know, the good stuff, but that lack of recall sort of makes sense as it was the first film from 80's music video director Russell Mulcahy, who did notable work with Duran Duran and Elton John before being given his first shot at a feature length film with this one, and admittedly the story lacks serious substance, but it's so stylish and fun I still love it lots.
The film opens in the small town of Gamulla in the Australian outback where grizzled-grandpa Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr, Gallipoli) is babysitting his infant grandson when suddenly a rhino-sized wild boar known as a razorback plows through the home in the dead of night, tearing through the house like a rabid bulldozer, letting loose a bloodcurdling squeal and carrying off the poor kid to his off screen death, surely eaten. Gramps is later put on trial for the murder of the kid, not even his own daughter seems to believe the story about a giant-sized pig being the culprit, but he gets off as there's not enough evidence to convict him of the crime either.
Flash forward a few years later and the old codger has become something of a running joke in the community, now obsessed with hunting and eradicating all razorbacks in hopes of running up against the fabled pig who killed his flesh and blood. Enter into the picture an American reporter named Beth Winters (Judy Morris, The Mad Plumber), a wildlife advocate who has come to the small community to report on a local pet food company PetPak, whom she believes is illegally poaching kangaroos to grind up into pet food. The local yokels who run the pet food processing plant aren't too keen on her intrusion into their lively hood, and brothers Benny (Chris Haywood, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey) and Dicko (David Argue, BMX Bandits) catch up to her on the road one night and cause her to run off the road, what ensues is a scene that wouldn't be out of place in an ozploitation film like Fair Game (1986). The baddies run her off the road in their souped-up monster of a truck and Dicko pulls her from the car wreck in what is quickly looking to be a rape, disturbingly asking her if she "want to make love" while undoing his pants, only to be scared off when the huge razorback barrels into their truck, with them fleeing the scene leaving the inured Beth to fend for herself. She takes refuge in her car but the beast of a boar tears into the car and her, she's spared a rape only to be torn apart and eaten by the boar. This part of the film is a bit like Psycho, with the blonde lead suddenly exiting the film on short notice.
Some months later Beth's grieving husband Carl (Gregory Harrison, Trilogy of Terror) arrives to look into the death of his wife, which has been reported as an accident. He first looks up Jake who his wife had interviewed shortly before her death, with Jake steering him towards the demented brothers who he says know a thing or two about his wife's death. Carl arrives at PetPak and introduces himself under false pretenses, somehow he ends up on a night-time kangaroo hunt with the outback rednecks, but his questions about the death of the reporter annoy Dicko, and when he objects to the cruelty they inflict on the kangaroos by only wounding them not killing them - so as not to spoil the meat - they shoot him in the knee and leave him for dead.
Trapped in the remote Aussie outback Carl roams alone, suffering through the sweltering days and bone-cold nights, taking warmth from the recently killed corpse of kangaroo, a scene which has always brought to mind the scene in Empire Strikes Back with Han slicing open the Tauntaun for warmth, but in a very low-key sort of way. There's a lot of visuals nods in the film, including the iconic dolly-zoom from Jaws at one point, as MulCahy was a music video director he seems to be going all-out with the visuals here, including some truly surreal lost-in-the-desert stuff with a razorback skeleton emerging from the ground.
Eventually the film comes to a close with grizzled old Jake finally catching-up to the wild boar that killed his grandson, or perhaps more truthfully, the boar catches up with Jake, his revenge not as sweet as one would have hoped for, but later Carl evens the score when the gigantic razorback ends up at PetPak, while also going up against the wild Aussie brothers with a flesh-grinding finale that leaves quite a bit to be desired truth be told.
Razorback (1984) might lack narrative muscle and and character underpinnings but it's hard not to love the visuals from director Rusell Mulcahy (Highlander) and cinematographer Dean Semler (Mad Max 2), with smoke-filled atmosphere and surreal visuals that gets across the threat of the sun-drenched outback but also the redneck nightmare that makes up a large part of the film.
The boar itself look pretty darn good, though it is seldom seen in more than just fleeting glimpses, probably because the special effects and rudimentary animatronics weren't all that the FX team and director had hoped for, it looks like they only made a giant head on a wheel-barrow as that's about all we see, but what we do see it pretty good stuff. For a film about a killer pig the gore is restrained to put it kindly, but the scenes of it plowing through Jake's home is well shot and Beth's death is especially harrowing. Her whole ordeal is a strange one, it starts with a car chase straight out of Mad Max, evolves into near rape, and then she's attacked by razorback, it's a wild ride and the standout scene in the film for me.
Razorback is a movie I always forget the details of after I watch it, that's probably because the story doesn't have a lot to offer, but as a film about a big killer wild pig I don't think brilliant wordplay or story arc what I am in need of, it's a thrilling visual dazzler for sure, and that's enough for me me, but that ending... it comes real fast. I always find myself rewinding it to see the scene again thinking I missed something, but nope, it just sort of comes to an abrupt end, you can tell they had bigger plans for it and just couldn't do it because of various constraints, so yeah, the ending is a letdown but the film is still a ton of fun.
I should also say that the actual killer pig story takes a backseat for about a third of the film in my opinion to the nightmarish redneck duo of Chris Haywood and David Argue, these guys are so demented and creepy, particularly Argue who is an unrepentant loon in this film, it's good stuff but it also speaks to the uneven tone and wondering narrative style of a first-film that lacks focus, but again, I forgive it because of how cool the visuals are, it's a pretty damn decent killer pig film, the best one that I've ever seen anyway.
Audio/Video: Razorback (1984) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment with a new transfer from a restored 4K master, framed in 1080p HD 2.35:1 widescreen, the image has a nice looking grain structure and the fine details looks pretty darn good in the close-ups. Skin tones are warm looking and the black levels look solid, the colors are nicely vibrant when called upon, with the arid dusty landscape looking hot, and the nightmarish stuff glowing with color.
Audio on the disc comes by way of an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA with optional English subtitles, everything is well-balanced and quite loud, the score from composer Iva Davies (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) has some nice presence in the mix, as does that bloodcurdling pig squeal.
Onto the extras Umbrella have done a very nice job with this so one, beginning with a new audio commentary from director Russell Mulcahy moderated by Shayne Armstrong, plus a 3-min audio interview with actor Gregory Harrison - whose not quite enamored with the film to say the least, as he mentions here and in other places on the disc. As per the usual of late Umbrella also include a wealth of extended interview with cast and crew from Mark Hartley's excellent Not Quite Hollywood doc, over eighty-give minutes worth of interviews, loads of good stuff, more from Harrison about how he felt the lack of a proper narrative hurt the film and his experiences on set with the cast and crew, hurting his shoulder during a stunt scene he shot himself, and generally speaking fondly of everyone on the film, always pointing out the lack of a narrative in favor of smoke-filled music-video type shots. We also get input from Mulcahy, Chris Haywood, Judy Morris and others, speaking about the shoot, how the classically trained Bill Kerr bristled at the improv of David Argue, the special effects and the challenges of making the film.
Speaking of Mark Harley, Umbrella bring over his his hour-long 2005 making-of doc Jaws on Trotters with a lot of the same talking heads, Mulcahy speaking about being brought onto the film following a successful music video directing career, working with Duran Duran and Elton John, the special effects team and producer speaking about the limitations of the budget and special effects in the film, all being very candid about the film's shortcomings.
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| A Certain Piggish Nature: Looking Back at Razorback (24 min) |
We also get 2-min of deleted scenes, a lot of it coming from the Razorback attack on Judy Morris's character, plus Umbrella go the extra mile with a VHS-sourced uncut version of the film in dingy looking fullframe, watching it will absolutely bring you back to the days of watching shitty-looking VHS!
The last of the substantial video extras is the 24-minute A Certain Piggish Nature: Looking Back at Razor back with conversation with film historians Lee Gambin, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Sally Christie and Emma Westwood, Australian film journalist discussing the film, an interesting talk for sure.
The disc is buttoned-up with an extensive gallery of novel covers, poster art, video releases, soundtrack release artwork, press marketing, still and behind-the-scenes footage, plus a theatrical trailer for the film, a VHS trailer, and a TV spot. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with reversible sleeve of artwork and a slick looking slipcover. As this is volume four of the Beyond Genres imprint the spine of the wrap and slipcover are numbered, the slip and reverse artwork on the wrap featuring a new illustration from Umbrella' staff designer Simon Sherry, it's not bad but it's not as cool as any of the original artwork for the film in my opinion but it right in line with the Beyond Genres aesthetic so far.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary with director Russell Mulcahy and Shayne Armstrong
- Audio interview with actor Gregory Harrison (31 min)
- JAWS ON TROTTERS: Featuring interviews with director Russell Mulcahy, producer Hal McElroy, Razorback creator Bob McCarron, composer Iva Davies and cast Judy Morris and Chris Haywood (63 min)
- Extended interviews with cast and crew from Mark Hartley's Not Quite Hollywood (85 Min)
- Grisly deleted scenes with new optional audio commentary (2 min)
- Razorback: The VHS Cut - the original uncut 4:3 Australian home video version (95 Minutes)
- Theatrical trailer (2 min)
- VHS trailer (2 min)
- A Certain Piggish Nature: Looking Back at Razorback (24 min)
- Image gallery (27 min)
Razorback (1984) is a fun killer pig movie with some great visuals and a scary looking (but seldom seen) pig, the new Blu-ray from Umbrella is easily the best the film has ever looked on home video and the extras are amazing, it's great to see this finally get the HD release it deserves.
