In a small outback town a child is carried off by a massive wild boar, but the grandfather who was looking after the boy gets accused of killing the youngster. He tells that of a gigantic wild boar killed his grandson, but naturally the town's folk won't hear any off it. But in the trail there wasn't enough evidence to convict him so he's acquitted. Next a American female reporter who's an animal rights activist goes down under to get some interviews with some kangaroo hunters, but instead she comes face to face with the rampaging boar and disappears. The locals believe that she must have fallen down a mine shaft, but her husband Carl thinks otherwise and heads to Australia to dig up any dirt to what really happen.

Da Da.. Da Da dadada... Get out of the water! Oops, wrong film. Sorry about that as I just couldn't get that Jaws theme out of my head. "Razorback" is what you can call Australia's answer to "Jaws", but instead this one is on land and we get one angry looking boar terrorising locals and out-of-town visitors. The two films do share some similar characteristics, but while "Jaws" plays it mostly serious I found "Razorback" the opposite. Well, it would be hard to get anyone to take the story seriously because of how ridiculously stupid it is, but that doesn't stop this stylishly, grim shocker from being entertaining. Well, actually that wasn't the case on my first viewing of this flick as I wasn't particularly smitten over it. Maybe I was in a grumpy mood at the time, but on this occasion I enjoyed the silly experience far more.

The premise might cross into "Jaws", but the beginning also adds to the story - Australia's most infamous case of the baby that was taken by dingo, which still causes controversy today. The fella who penned this particular film Everett D Roche is probably Australian's most prominent screenwriter in the genre with such films like Patrick, Harlequin and Road Games under his belt. While, the story might be highly derivative there's enough imagination and excitement in spots to keep it from being uneventful. But there's one thing I can say about this production is that the thick style is all over thin substance. Who you can thank for that is a music video director making his debut in films - Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, The Shadow). He brought to the table an atmosphere that was visually stunning with its sprawling, desolate backdrop that has never been so eerily caught. Well lately, "Wolf Creek" did a good job on that aspect. But here there's a surreal quality about it with it's vibrant colour scheme and blanket of mist. The lighting composition is well staged with a visual goldmine exploding on screen with the spectacular shots of the horizon. The vacant outback simply spills off the screen that you just think that it's such a great backdrop for a horror flick. The expansive camera-work is swift in it's movement by capturing every frame with a certain amount of panache and the odd inventive angle and POV shot. The electronic score is effectively worked into the piece along with hissing sound effects that added even more to the unsteady, dreamlike texture.

Since there is not much in the way of surprises, director Mulcahy ups the thrills and action in such an unyielding fashion to set the film alight. While, the gore might be lacking, the deaths are unpleasant and also thrown in some animal cruelty. What was surprising is that the since the spot light is basically on the mechanical boar - it doesn't look too bad, well towards the end it might lose some of the effect it created early on. But I have seen far worse.

The performances are tolerable enough even with some eccentric yahoos who generated some agreeable humour. The script is purely senseless dribble, but there's some dry sarcasm, thick slang and a laid back attitude that works its way in because of the culture. Gregory Harrison is passable as Carl Winters. Bill Kerr is excellent as the stubborn boar hunter Jake Cullan who has a chip on his shoulder and who's crusade is to get the giant pig. Arkie Whiteley is lovely Sarah Cameron and Judy Morris is decent as Beth Winters. But the most memorable performances is the cheerful maniac brothers Benny and Dicko who are marvellously played by Chris Haywood and David Argue that add the wild and wacky feel to the flick.

A highly spirited and trashy Australian knock-off that goes down well with a few cold ones.

It's not that scary with an abrupt ending and features some really annoying characters but Razorback is still overall a good thriller. Gregory Harrison and Bill Kerr are both great. There's a few effectively suspenseful scenes and it's surprisingly extremely well filmed with some really gorgeous shots. There are some laughably bad moments and the music by Iva Davies is really good.

I liked the fast pace of this movie, and the grim atmosphere, greatly enhanced by the stunning photography: the world down under reduced to it's most barren and desolate face, soaked in weird colors and ghastly mists that seem to hide all kinds of unearthly terrors.

The acting is a bit uneven, the ladies are just adequate, the two sinister brothers are tremendous and the leading male (Gregory Harrison) is like a math teacher turned into a hero despite himself. But somehow Harrison pulls it of, he actually has enough charisma to stay believable unto the orgiastic and a bit over-the-hill ending, which is an achievement in it's own right.

On my DVD there was a bonus feature with a very interesting audio-interview with Harrison, who gave some fascinating insights on the making-of and on his becoming involved in the project, as well as on his own career. But why on earth not a VIDEO-interview, or an actual comment-track along with (parts of) the movie, now one has to listen for half an hour to a voice while watching an empty screen, that seemed like such a waste!! I would have liked to see what Harrison looked like nowadays (he sure was good-looking back in 1984, and I bet he still is!).

Anyway, in this movie he did a great job, very physical indeed, for instance the whole section of him wandering endlessly through a sun-baked wasteland on bare feet, or falling out off a wind-mill into shallow water while (real) razorbacks crowded in on him, or personally fighting the monster on some kind of assembly-belt. According to his own words he suffered multiple minor injuries during the shooting and I can easily believe that. When in the end he has destroyed the beast and he stands up victoriously soaked in blood, it must have felt like a victory to himself too.

And what about the ferocious monster, the giant razorback?? Well, as long as it stays in the distance, or stampedes through the image so that the camera hardly catches up with it, it's convincing enough: big and ugly and menacing. But when at last the close-ups can't be avoided anymore, it quickly looses it's credibility, as in so many pre-CGI movies, it then comes mainly down to a big hairy flip-flapping jaw and rolling eyes. To me that diminished a bit the supposed horror of the otherwise breathtaking climax.

All in all this movie is great entertainment, with many very memorable scenes. I rank it 8 out of 10.