Ozploitation

But just a quick refresher, because I don't think we did a full primer on him.

But basically, he's a legendary figure in Ozploitation.

Of course, Australian exploitation cinema.

Right, right, right.

Today we're covering 1993 horror comedy Body Melt, starring Gerard Kennedy, rest in peace, Andrew Datto, Ian Smith, hi Neighbours fans, as well as Australia's sweetheart Lisa McCune.

This little Ozploitation gem was written and directed by Philip Brophy and has for the most part been forgotten to time.

But we're here to dig it back up, kicking and screaming and covered in pus.

This is a movie that I recently stumbled upon on Shudder.

This is one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite movies.

I randomly found that out.

He was a big fan of the Ozploitation genre and speaks highly of this film.

They also wanted to do sequels to this movie, but again, they couldn't get any funding with that.

night.

If you are a big time slasher fan who loves Ozploitation films, there is some pretty cool characters in this with a lot of different storylines.

There are nuns flinging acid, as the DVD says.

There's a fun band.

I run a video shop in Bristol called 20th Century Flicks and each year around this time I help put on a horror film festival called The Big Scream at an old abandoned IMAX.

Last year we did an Ozploitation two-nighter called Six Feet Down Under and this year to mark the passing of 10 years since Brexit We are doing three nights of Euro slasher movies called European Slaycation.

We're showing Blood and Black Lace, Deep Red, Baby Blood, Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man, Stage Fright, The Strange Vice of Mrs Ward, and the UK premiere of a 4K restoration of Who Can Kill a Child.

It's October 22nd to 25th, and you're both very welcome to come along, although admittedly it's not for the faint of heart.

do.

But is that Ozploitation if it's just an Australian production?

Because the ploitation part is an important part of it.

I don't know.

Okay.

So, I guess when one of the key lines of the trailer is consider yourself fucked.

Yeah, that's Ozploitation.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Directed one of the best Ozsploitation movies ever, Razorback.

Oh, shit.

The giant-

I, I think if you're in the mood for a Jaws riff, it's fun.

If you're in the mood for, of a, some, uh, Ozploitation, it's fun, 'cause it's definitely Ozploitation.

It, it's, it's leaning very hard into that, um-

As-

[laughs]

It v- I, listen, it is very much, uh, you nailed it.

It's Oz, like this Ozploitation, hicksploitation stuff-

Uh-huh

Australia has produced a very specific strain of genre movie where you can almost feel the heat coming off of the screen.

It is called Ozploitation, and some really great examples of films like this are Razorback, Road Games, and the more recent Wolf Creek series.

The director of this, actually the writer and director of this, Mia Kate Russell, set the film in 1986 during a scorching Aussie summer, isolating four girls in a beach house for a no-dick weekend to celebrate Penny Lane's college acceptance.

Three of the girls are really good friends, but Penny's estranged cousin Kat is in town, and she unexpectedly shows up with cupcakes.

Films that take the geography of an ordinary space and force the filmmaker to find new ways to make it feel dangerous.

At first, this place seems like a pretty cool spot to spend a weekend, but once Cat, Angus, and his friends arrive, every part of the house starts feeling smaller, and every hallway, every door, every window seemed to matter more.

It's the same kind of setup that made funny games so effective, and this film takes that idea and injects it with, uh... kind of a trashier Ozploitation vibe.

If you like strong lesbian final girls, Toni is going to tickle your fancy.

... such a winner.

Um, and uh, I decided, you know what? We need to go down the Ozploitation SOV route for our horror films.

So, uh, we can continue to find these SOV gems, and uh, we'll see if we did today.

We're gonna be taking a time machine back to 1986, where two drunk Melbourne thugs chase this two-timing teenage Casanova and his date into the bush.

And it's this Ozploitation at its scuzziest.

It's The Marauders from 1986, directed by Mark Savage.

Oh my God.

[lips smack] Uh, I was surprised by it, uh, coming off of, uh, SOV, like, September.