2019 / 90m - Australia
Sci-fi, Mystery
1.5*/5.0*
Black Garden poster

Watches

May 23, 2022

1.5*/5.0*

Sci-fi on the cheap. This small-scale Australian post-apocalyptic thriller makes a decent effort, but director Wilson can't really overcome his budgetary limitations. The result is a film that obviously tried to be a little different from the norm, but ultimately fails at everything it sets out to do. It's nothing a little extra cash couldn't fix.

World War III happened and left very few survivors. Kate is one of them, she is holed up inside her house, scared to go outside. Until she gets a radio signal that tells her everything is fine. She has no reason to trust the man on the other side, but with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, Kate decides to trust him and go to the proposed rendezvous point.

The soundtrack is pretty much the only thing that works. Brooding ambient and menacing background rumbles create oodles of atmosphere. The cinematography (basically just a desaturation filter that makes thing look grimmer) is rather poor, the performances are downright bad. The pacing is a tad slow, but that's probably because the rest of the film doesn't work. Not great, but not entirely without potential.