Boar Review: Prepare for gore galore in this Aussie creature feature.
Boar review by Kat Hughes.
Boar Review
Frightfest wouldn’t be Frightfest without it’s annual creature feature. Previous years have gifted us giant wasps (Stung), angry crocodiles (Black Water), and now there is a giant wild boar in Boar. Set in modern Australia, Boar tells the story of both locals and tourists falling victim to a gigantic boar. One whose size is matched only by its appetite for destruction.
The film begins with The Devil’s Rejects Bill Moseley’s character Bob and his family as they travel to visit his brother-in-law. This plot line is quickly dropped however, in favour of following Wolf Creek‘s John Jarratt, who plays typical Aussie out-backer Ken. We stick with Ken as he and his fellow locals discover the boisterous boar before zipping back to the family as they fall victim. This change of focus really hampers the pace of Boar. The first half slowly builds up the tension and kill count only to stop just as it’s about to reach its peak, before suddenly starting all over again. This narrative choice strips Boar of its fun factor and makes the relatively short film feel bloated and overlong.
Boar Review
It’s other issue is in the casting. Now John Jarratt is likely to be a very lovely man in person (most horror folks are), but to the majority of audiences he is known as Wolf Creek‘s Mick. Mick is a character that has stalked and tortured vast groups of tourists across two Wolf Creek movies and most recently across two series of their counterpart television show. The side effect is that, to many, Jarratt and Mick are intrinsically tied together. So, when you see him in Boar as a nice Aussie bloke you don’t quite believe it. I myself spent most of his screen time waiting for him to go nasty and join the boar in the killing spree. It’s unfair to typecast actors, but nonetheless, it felt like John Jarratt was critically under used.
On a positive note, any scene featuring our titular boar is delightful. There’s gore galore and it’s a real throwback to the creature stalk and kill films of yesteryear. The creature effects too are, on the whole, well-executed. The deaths are as silly as you would want from this type of film, and the boar manages to dispatch victims in a variety of devilish ways.
Boar has a disjointed story and is slightly miscast; these decisions let down what is otherwise a camp, kitsch creature feature gloriously drenched in blood.
Boar review by Kat Hughes, August 2018.
Boar screened as part of Arrow Video Frightfest 2018. It will be available to buy via Signature’s Frightfest Presents line at some time in October 2018.
