User Reviews

The teenager Mark (Sebastian Gregory) has a crush on Chasely (Hanna Mangan Lawrence), who is the girlfriend of his best friend James (Joshua Payne) and is always teasing him. Mark and James share a secret: they were raped by the punk bully Gary Parker (Michael Dorman) when they were younger. While wandering in the woods, Mark witnesses a suspicious man with a shovel filling a hole and then sneaking from the place in a 4x4 Discovery with a butterfly cover on the spare tire. Mark tells James and Chasely and they return with shovels to dig the location, where they find the corpse of a woman. Instead of calling the police, they decide to find whether the killer lives. They discover that his name is Ian Wright (Joel Edgerton) and lives in the suburb with his wife and their baby. Mark and James blackmail Ian, ordering him to kill Gary Parker. However, the killer presses Gary and discovers the identities of the teenagers, reverting the situation and disclosing a dark secret about Mark.

"Acolytes" has a promising beginning with the weird relationship among Mark, James and Chasey and their discovery of the grave of a Caucasian woman. The first unreasonable and absurd situation is when the trio does not call the police and decides to investigate the possible killer. However, the conclusion when Ian teams up with his acolyte is so stupid and unthinkable that irritates. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Caçada Sinistra" ("Sinister Hunting")

This was a decent movie for the first half. Too many cheap BOO! moments but the tension builds, the bad guys are creepy and everything seems to be setting itself up nicely. The kids are not particularly deep but hey, that works for teens.

Then it just gets ridiculous and tries way too hard- the "why in the world would he/they do that?" moments overwhelm anyone's capacity for suspension of disbelief, the twist involves too many ridiculous coincidences, and the title comes from a late attempt to philosophize some meaning into the film that goes nowhere and is quickly dropped. There was laughter in the theater at moments that were in no way supposed to be funny.

Great premise but just badly written and doesn't hold together. Some very nice shots but they're hard to enjoy while you're rolling your eyes.

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.

A rather lame teen slasher from Brisbane. While the plot hinges on a fairly decent idea, the writing is profoundly lame and two of the three main teens are absurdly wooden. The problem is that for the kids to go through with their plan they have to be far more reckless than shown, but if they were that devil-may-care, it would perhaps be hard for them to be likable, so they end up being neither really. In fact, I only started enjoying the film when I started wishing for their death. One of those movies where in about a thousand places the most sensible option would be to call the police. I realise we wouldn't have a movie if they did, but it would be nice if we could believe that they actually wouldn't. Avoid.

Whilst the film is beautifully shot and the two adult leads are very good, there was a lot I struggled with. To start, the 3 young teenage actors seemed like they were straight from drama school, but not a good one. The young girl was okay, but the guys were dreadful. Then there was the fact that they as characters were just not right in this film, they seemed out of place and doing things that young middle class school kids just wouldn't do. Would you imagine 3 young well educated kids digging up a body and then rebury it and all done with the same ease as making a cup of tea...

...Read more at my website: http://iheartfilms.weebly.com/acolytes.html

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.

Although one might charitably call the plot believable from the revenge point of view, that logic does not hold water as the trio had no original initial plan when they decided not to tell police. You find a dead body in the forest, you know details about the murderer, why not tell police? Why not tell parents? The one girl supposedly has a close connection to a previous girl who went missing, yet she is callous enough not to tell police about the body that might be her friend's. The group is able to find the man responsible, yet still do not tell police. All through this movie I was screaming at the screen, where are the parents?? One boy gets shot through the arm with an arrow, the sleeping arrangements are communal at best, and the parent of none of these kids seems to care where they are or where they sleep. It's just too unbelievable to be a thriller, too annoying to be enjoyable. A shame...

A student catches a man burying something in the woods and he seeks two of his friends who also make a couple to go there and dig out. In town a young girl has been missing and the kids believe that it's a possibility that indeed Tanya is buried over there and the cruel truth make their assumptions to be real. Fortunately, one of the boys manage to take a closer look at the killer's car so he decide to go after him and deliver to the police. Of course this will not be easy because in their way stand a man that wants to take revenge on the kids and they make the ultimate choice in order to get rid of the obstacle that stands between them. Will they succeed?

The first 20 minutes are good, the action and the story keep the audience focused even through the middle of the movie but the last 30 minutes becomes dull and the story begins to get complicated towards the simple plot that has been at the start.

An OK movie not a masterpiece but not the kind that you should neglect.

This Australian movie presents a watchable take on the well worn serial killer thriller path. When one of three teenage school children stumbles upon the body of one of the killers victims he along with his two friends make a reckless and ill conceived attempt to blackmail the killer into murdering their own childhood nemesis. (That being the thug who abused them as young children and who has been released from prison). This plot reveal regarding the abuse the boys suffered is not immediately introduced and may help explain the somewhat disenfranchised attitude of the two teenage boys who come across as dreary anti social misfits. Their personalities in fact are really unlikeable and along with the thug and the killer this leaves room only for the third teenage character of Chasely (played nicely by young actress Hanna Lawrence) to empathise with.

The killer as usual appears as a normal family man but beneath the facade lies the heart of darkness. Those critical of the movie have derided the teenage characters actions. Why not tell the authorities about the body for example- but then of course there would be no story to tell.

The plot though is entirely predictable and when the wheels easily come off the children's plan the movie climaxes with the all too common bloodbath.

I have seen the DVD release of the movie marketed as a horror movie which it certainly is not but if you are a fan of the serial killer genre its worth at least a rent.