Killing Ground - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Killing Ground

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
IFC midnight is an interesting collaboration with Scream Factory home video. Whenever I see another one of their films released to the general public I’m curious how it turns out. Usually the films end up with one of two out comes. Either you’re left sitting there going “hey, that was actually rather good”, or “well, there was another 90 minutes of my life that just went by”. There’s usually no in between, as the studio seems to fall very heavily into the “hit or miss” category. Killing Field is a native Australian film from 2016 that finally gets a Blu-ray release a good year late, but is actually one of the few IFC Midnight films that I feel falls squarely in the middle. It’s not a film that’s 100% well crafted, but it is nowhere near as bad as others in the same category that IFC has put out. Instead it manages to be both engaging and just a little bit rushed at the same time. Neither too gory and nasty (one of the twisted enjoyments of a good horror film), and just a little too gruesome to be completely tame, Killing Ground hovers in that in between state, not achieving a truly disturbing sensation, yet not twisted enough to really get that into.

Rob (Julian Garner) and Margaret (Maya Strange) are out for a bit of a camping trip around New Years eve, when things get a bit out of hand. The love sick couple makes their way down to Rob’s childhood camping spot only to find out that there is a tend setup a short distance away. Disappointed that their little love nest is interrupted, the two still set up shop and decide to make the best of it. After a good 24 hours the couple notices that no one seems to be there and decides to investigate. Sadly all they find is a torn up tent and a complete LACK of human company. Just as they’re about to head out and call a park ranger, a young hunter by the name of Chook (Aaron Glenane) shows up and offers to help the couple track down the missing campers for them.

Told with a sort of parallel storytelling method, Killing Ground unfolds with a pair of stories told in simultaneous sections. On one hand we have Rob and Margaret, but on the other hand we actually see what happens to the campers in the mysteriously empty tent before Rob and Margie nearly undergo the same fate. The story is glimpsed in a sectional manner, giving us just enough of a tease to let us know that Rob and his girlfriend are about to be in for a nasty surprise, but not letting us know EXACTLY what is going to happen until a few moments before it does. At least that’s how the film’s narrative plays out in THEORY. What actually happens is that we can see what’s going to happen from the first 10 minutes of the movie when Rob and Margaret run into The German and Chook at the beginning of the movie. The two villains are played up as super creepy stalks from the minute we see them, and Damien Power seems to gleefully flaunt that knowledge while trying to keep the audience from realizing it at the same time. Leading to a puzzlingly tame ending due to the fact that we already know exactly what is going to happen.

While I like the grungy Aussie outback, the film seems to be devoid of that dirty and NASTY hillbilly feeling that has made so many of these Australian outback terror tales so effective. Instead it tries to build up suspense where there is none, and we just wait and wait and wait for Chook and The German to come out and start terrorizing the couple. It’s not until the 58 minute mark (of a 1 hour and 29 minute film) that there is any real sense of tension, and that starts when Chook decides to start hunting the couple on his very own .Then we get to see some real action as we watch Margaret and Rob start to fall apart as they’re separated and hunted one by one from the disturbed pair of hunters.

Killing Ground sets an interesting pace, moving at what seems like lightening speed with large jumps in the timeline. By that I mean that the film’s plot never seems to slow down and let the terror sink in, but rather rushes the film forward at such a breakneck pace that we don’t actually feel much for the victims or the perpetrators. That’s not to say the film is badly done. The greasy feeling of the killers, along with the naivety of Chook makes for an interesting watch, it’s just that the film sits so squarely in the middle of the spectrum that I have a hard time feeling any emotion one way or the other about the watch.




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language.




Video:

Presented in a slightly “off” 2.37:1 scope aspect ratio, Killing Ground is a well done Blu-ray that does well for itself considering the show string budget used to film it. The movie is well detailed and shows off the mixture of green and dusty desert that makes up the Australian outback well enough. Fine detail is good, but the filming style by Powers employs copious soft focus shots and sun drenched backgrounds that creates an ever so slightly hazy look. The sun drenched backgrounds also work in the films favor, showing of excellent detail at times, with sharp colors and a good contrast balance. Black levels are solid, but do show some mild banding when flashlights are shown.






Audio:

Scream Factory supplies the obligatory twin English audio tracks. One in 5.1 DTS-HD MA, and another in 2.0 DTS-HD MA. For being a 5.1 track, the surround mix is rather front heavy, employing the front three speakers way more often than expected for a track of this nature. There’s some raw ambient sounds in the background forest area, and the club scene uses the back channels a little bit, but a majority of the work is ALL in the upper end of the sound stage. LFE is soft and extremely mild, popping a few bits here and there to accentuate gunshots, and put some very anemic low end into the club scene, but overall it’s not a wildly kicking track.





Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Killing Ground is a strangely “soft” horror film (besides some disturbing moments such as when Ollie is silently walking behind Margaret, or when Chook tries to assault Margaret after stringing her up), as it shies away from being TRULY disturbing as the genre tends to thrive off of. The film’s breakneck speed moves it along quickly, but tends to not sit around in one place long enough to truly resonate with the audience. The creep factor is low, but the tension is fairly high, and the Scream Factory Blu-ray is capable enough for a low budget grunge flick like IFC Midnight likes to put out. Extras are only a simple trailer, but the film itself is worthy enough of a one time watch/rental for us horror fans.





Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mitzi Ruhlmann, Harriet Dyer, Aaron Pederson
Directed by: Damien Power
Written by: Damien Power
Aspect Ratio: 2.37:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 89 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 7th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Based on the recommendation, will catch it on amazon prime/netflix when available.