Extreme Horror: REVIEW: Razorback (1984)

Title: Razorback

Also known as: Kampfkoloss Der Hölle (Germany)

Year: 1984

Genre: Horror / Animal / Thriller

Language: English

Runtime: 95 min

Director: Russell Mulcahy

Writer: Peter Brennan (novel) & Everett De Roche (written by)

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087981/

Plot:

Jake Cullen lives in the Austrailian outback and one night his house is attacked by a giant Razorback boar and his grandson is carried away with it and he dedicates his entire life to track that boar and kill it. Years a

fter this horrible event, an American TV-reporter falls victim to the very same boar, but no one knows what has happened to her. Her husband gets there to find the truth behind the death of his wife, and eventually joins forces with Jake Cullen and Jake's daughter to kill the huge bloodthirsty pig.

Our thoughts:

Horror movies about big animals.. We've all learned not to expect anything out of the ordinary from them, because most are bad. Doesn't matter if you find enjoyment in them or not, you can't say that the majority of them are good movies. There are of course a couple golden movies, most of them which are very famous, like Jaws and Jurassic Park, but I can't hide from the fear I get every time I'm gonna watch one I haven't seen. Razorback is a

movie that I've heard close to nothing about, I've only heard of it from a few people I know, and they all had very good things to say about it. This doesn't help my fear, but it made me interested in seeing the god damn thing. There is a slight chance that I only got interested because it was about a big swine though.

The plot itself might not be extraordinary, but but it actually didn't feel very cliché, even though we have our obvious bad guys who are "worse" than the monster (in this case, the Razorback), a vengeful old man no one believes, a man looking for answers on a missing person, and so on. There's also the obvious faults where the creature is way too smart, but if things like that annoy you, then you should never watch a horror movie again. The movie is set in the Austrailian outback, which makes it feel almost post-apocalyptic

at times, especially the scenes with the Baker brothers (the "bad guys") who dress odd and act barbaric. Yes, dressing odd can almost be considered a trademark of post-apocalyptic movies. That plus desert equals post-apocalypse. The movie has very beautiful visuals with wide open deserts, good use of different colors and interesting sets.

I saw someone was complaining about the acting in this film, and I have no idea why because I think it was pretty good, or even very good. Either it's just me who's been watching too many shitty acted and shitty overall movies like TrashHouse, or maybe I'm just better than those other people.

The special effects are great here, and that's something I always pray for in a

creature movie but rarely get. We only see glimpses of the Razorback and all of them look amazing. After all, we're talking about a big angry badass hog here, so there was a big chance that it could look like shit, but it didn't. I think it looked good enough to be shown alot more than it actually was, but it adds a tension and mystery to the film when we only see some parts at a time, much like with Jaws. There wasn't that much gore in the film except some dead animals, which is fine by me, and atleast that gore looks splendid. I think the death of the boar could've been alot more graphic however. A few special effects they could've left out was the lightning and the electricity charges towards the end. They didn't look good.

I was very surprised by this film, I did not expect to see one of the best animal horrors ever made when I put this in the DVD. It should be seen by any horror

fan, especially fans of the animal horrors. It's not a straight out horror movie though, it has alot of things that only should be called "thriller". It has clichés, but it uses them with perfection. It has great special effects, it's beautifully shot and it's never boring. Check it out.

Positive things:

- Jake Cullen. Badass old fart.

- Coolest movie with a big pig ever made.

- Wonderful special effects on the pig. If this was made

2008 it would be CGI and I'd prefer diarrhea over that.

- Uses the clichés in the best ways possible.

Negative things:

- Not that gory.

- Why don't I hear about this film every day?

- The death of the Razorback should've been more graphic.

- The lightning and the electricity charges.

Rating: