Acolytes

Acolytes is an Australian thriller, labelled an "Ozploitation" flick I'm still not 100% clear on what an exploitation flick truly is.

It tells the story of a group of friends who blackmail a serial killer. Of course what could possibly go wrong there? It pretty much writes itself.

The movie isn't bad, it just feels a tad disjointed and when the credits rolled there were still a couple of rather important plot points that hadn't been fully addressed and that's really rather frustrating.

Starring Joel Edgerton in a career best performance as our antagonist this neat little thriller looks and sounds the part so it saddens me to say it didn't even remotely meet its potential.

Perfectly watchable stuff but it just missed the mark a tad. I'm left feeling like if the film had an additional 30 minutes it could have been something special but this finished product feels like a book with a couple of chapters ripped out.

Credit to all involved including the young cast, but it just didn't tick all the boxes for me.

The Good:

Decent soundtrack

Hanna Mangan Lawrence and Joel Edgerton

The Bad:

Couple of unanswered questions

Feels disjointed in places

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The death of his wife clearly pushed Ned Flanders over the edge

Australian teens are naturally more obnoxious than any other nationality!

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.

As always, a review by a horror films freak, not a professional critic nor even a cinema student.

For starters - allow me to admit that, having watched the film from beginning to end with no pauses, as the credits rolled I was left completely bewildered. As the twists occurred, I was able to realize I was in fact witnessing a twist, but not thoroughly comprehend what the twist was or what made it a twist.

As always, I came here to IMDb as soon the film had ended, and was much relieved to find out I wasn't the only one with more questions than answers... It was as if James's shirt slogan ("question everything answer nothing") was meant for this film. So after doing a little reading I was able to fully understand the plot, the twists and how they came together. All in all I'd have to say that the story was quite good and that the "bully" and "serial killer" genre clichés were collaborated in quite an original and artistic way (if somewhat unnecessary). However, the fact that I and many others found it so hard to follow and understand (whether due to poor storytelling or the extremely confusing shooting and cinematography) is a shortcoming in my book. Although I did find the cinematography, as well as the use of sound during the flashbacks, to be innovating and impressive. Some of you might find it tacky though.

Finally, I really loved the soundtrack, definitely going to look it up! So in conclusion - while this film could have been better, if you manage to look closely and carefully follow every scene you'll probably enjoy it. Won't be easy though!

This is a small but nicely filmed dark Australian thriller. As is the case with many Australasian films it never worries about veering away from the predictable and this makes for an absorbing film. It follows 3 teenagers who happen to find a dead body and knowing who the killer is attempt to bribe him to help them with a local thug.

I found this film grabbed my attention from the start helped by good believable performances from the 3 young leads. They are backed up well by Joel Edgerton, who has recently made it big thanks to his role in the excellent 'Warrior', and who really shines in this as the creepy local psychopath.

It's a pretty grim story but never less than compelling and builds an impressive amount of tension as the film nears it's climax. This is a chilling and bleak film and whilst it's no classic I was surprised at just how good it was.

A very impressive effort which is well worth more than one viewing.

I Would have to disagree strongly with the previous lame comment. I watched this not expecting too much from it. The Fact is that the cast were superb, Especially The lead Teen Female. The dark sides of them all came through, all were messed up in an not obvious way. There was an underlying current which ran through the movie of teenage angst and sexuality. The serial killer role was played well also as you could feel he had gone through what they had as children. What this movie is, is a strong drama/thriller. Yes I would agree they don't do the obvious, but you could relate with the messed up teenage heads they did what they did and it is believable. Also a decent dark ending, instead of which could have so easily been an opt out happy one. The attention to detail in the movie was fantastic also. I very good solid 7 out of 10. A little slow at times, but lets a thinking person see where the characters are coming from.