Acolytes (2009)

the audience applauded

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Just read some of the other reviews on here and I have to disagree.First - good cinematography with some really great shots. End of story. The tripe fest that is The Descendants that was filmed in beautiful Hawaii with a much larger budget looked like a brochure. Ugh.Second - cries of clichés, ridiculous plot twists and poor acting per reviewers. Can anyone really name a film that does not have some clichés (excludes any movie that did it first and more than 20 yrs ago). I've never seen 3 human beings sewn ass to face before, but then everyone cries how it's just for the shock value, too disgusting. Can't win either way. Poor acting from teen actors - was there room for improvement? Yes. Has anyone spent actual time around a couple of teen boys who were same sexed raped??? I'm thinking these kids are not too emotive, erratic, angry and confused with a dash of self-destruction and death obsession. I'm fine with the plot twists; kept it moving. As long as there was no cop-out dream sequence, then I'm willing to give some leeway.

Jon Hewitt's little Aussie horror / thriller 'Acolytes' had a strong base to work with as it focused on two teenage boys Mark and James who were physically abused when youngsters by a psychotic bully, Gary and he still happens to be on the scene. By chance Mark discovers a fresh grave in the woods and witnesses the culprit leaving in their 4WD. Thinking maybe its drugs or cash. Himself, James and his girlfriend Chasely head back the next day to unearth it, but discover a body. Still wanting revenge on Gary, they decide to find the whereabouts of the serial killer and secretly blackmail them into killing Gary, or they'll go to the cops. The opportunity might be worth the risk, but they soon find out it won't be all that easy.Director Hewitt sets up a deceitfully macabre and hauntingly slick serial killer film… well the serial killer element can almost be seen as the tool for the story's progression because the central piece could be labelled more so the relationship between the three broodingly angst, but damaged teenagers who really succumb to a lack judgement. The sound idea is made up of many possibilities, but the ambitious narrative does become a bit of jumble losing shape with its jaded editing techniques and jerky flashback sequences. I was getting a little confused with the incoherent shifts in the story's developments, but soon after the film had finished the pieces did eventually come together, despite the contrived occurrences for these things to actually work. It's visually atmospheric style was very similar of the enigmatically uncanny 2003 Australian horror 'Lost Things'. Just like that film, the pacing is purposely slow-going (too casual or artsy for some) and keeping a downbeat frown throughout, but remains psychologically gripping with its metaphorical undercurrents and pessimistic tone. After the ponderous set-up, it storms up moments of suspense and explicit brutality, by transcending in to a game of survival when those who thought they were in control find out they bit off more than what they could chew… or did they? When it erupts there's a real dark edge leading to a dangerously murderous impulse revealing a little more than we first thought. While it's not a perfect balance and feels rushed, it's intriguing to how it eventually goes on to play out. Nonetheless watching the two alternative endings on the DVD, I actually preferred those two takes over the original theatrical choice.The dialogues are fairly sparse and if so quite straight forward, with it concentrating on its moody styling to invoke the emotional pull. Truthfully most of the characters that enter the frame (the main players) isn't particularly likable and can be said to be unpleasant or obnoxious. This however doesn't hamper any of the performances. Sebastian Gregory, Joshua Payne and Hanna Mangan-Lawrence provide good, honest portrayals of the teenagers who find they are in over their heads. Joel Edgerton emits a plausible intensity and uneasiness from his casually creepy facade as the suburban serial killer. Michael Dorman gives a capable turn as the crazily violent bully.Rich locations (filmed in Queensland) are made to great use, where the authentically stunning backdrops have the outskirts of suburbia intrusively entering the forlorn wilderness. Hewitt really does cement a constant eeriness to when the scenes hit the chilling woodlands because of the clinically sharp photography (as there's plenty of excellent imagery captured) and distinctively howling score. However there are some generic inclusions involving unnerving sound effects and clichéd jump scares.

Acolytes presents an interesting mix of original concepts in "screaming teen" cliché horror with a more thriller-like pacing. In some ways Acolytes is very successful, but in many other ways the film fails miserably.Overall Acolytes avoided the typical archetypes of the naivety and innocence of youth of endless horror films in the like of Cabin Fever, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and countless other films where unsuspecting and relatively naive and innocent teenagers, have sex, run around screaming and one-by-one are plucked off by some sort of monster. Instead this innocence is replaced with pride, retaliation, and arrogance. The characters had several opportunities to save themselves from immanent death and despair, but failed to do so due to their own personal demons. In the end you were left with the feeling that there were no (and perhaps are no) innocent victims.As the name implies, the film also touches greatly on following a leader or authority. This was used in a direct sense of if the main character would become like the serial killer and was also used less directly throughout the film. Following a central figure is a reoccurring theme throughout the film.Through all this, the film makers also incorporated a lot of cliché, which I suspect was intentional and gave the film a unique mixture of depth as well as shallowness which I found intriguing. This, perhaps inadvertently, plays well with the characters who are, at first appearance very shallow but as the story unfolds it becomes obvious that they are, at least the two main male characters, quite complex.Technically the film has a lot of problems however. The cinematography, which is typically regarded highly, I find rather sophomoric and over-stylized, utilizing formulaic 2/3 approaches far too rigidly. Many transitions I felt were also over-stylized. The use of symbolism was not only vague, but also greatly over used.The plot was poorly planned and relied exclusively on misinformation in order to achieve a rather hokey twist ending, which was poorly resolved and leaves viewers confused. Methods used to resolve the climax are cheap and ill-prepared, motivations are routinely unclear, and major plot points remain untied in the end.Overall, the film's relative originality, themes and thesis are lost in a maze of poor technical execution, over-stylized imagery, unclear motives, obtuse and unnecessary symbolism and cheap twists maintained only by a lack of or entirely incorrect information.If the film were better executed, it would have been excellent. However, Acolytes receives only two stars in my opinion.

I saw what I believe to be the best Australian film of the year so far, Jon Hewitt's Acolytes.Acolytes is a stylish thriller with a killer premise. Get this…two bullied and molested teens discover a local serial killer in their suburb AND then set about blackmailing him to kill the bully who molested them. Hewitt has picked a top notch cast including excellent new comers Sebastian Gregory, Josua Payne and Hanna Mangan Lawrence to play the teens. Add to that three, yes, thats right three great psycho's! Lead by Joel Edgerton in an outstanding performance of serial killer du jour, Belinda McClory his deranged spouse and Michael Dorman as the teen raping bully, with swastika tattoos. Once you add these teens and these menacing adults, all hell breaks loose… Hewitt has crafted a balls to the wall serial thriller thats damn original and accomplished. You can see the influence of Larry Clark and David Lynch's Twin Peaks but Hewitt makes it all his own, in a Qld suburban back water, always ringing with the drones of emptiness. The script by Shayne Armstong, Shane Krouse and Hewitt is tight.If marketed correctly this film could be a break out hit with teens. The next Wolf Creek? It could well be. It makes all the right moves. The teens are real ala Larry Clark. They don't suck and have an attached PC agenda, they are non communicative, good looking and hip. The killers are dark with real menace. Joel Edgerton steals his scenes as the mild mannered local Ted Bundy, who sports a butterfly on his 4WD spare ala John Fowles The Collector. Dorman's petrol head rapist pours on the menace that tops Suburban Mayhem and provides a creepy thug who you can't wait to see buy the farm.The film is fast paced, tough and brutal. Not only that, it displays a confidence and directorial mastery from Hewitt that is surely to win him an IF or AFI nomination, if not award! Its nuanced and poetic mise en scene, brilliant sound design, excellent cinematography and tight structure mark it as clearly one of the best directed Oz features I have seen so far this year.The film leaves you shaken, thinking and unsettled. Its a truly great edition to the return to genre going on in Australian cinema at present. It will surely garner the interest of Hollywood. Oh, and did I mention it got into Toronto? What other Oz feature films can say that much? The world should get ready for a new auteur, Jon Hewitt.