Yeah, sometimes I'm a little slow getting to things sometimes, as was the case with Australian thriller Beautiful, a film that the Quiet Earth boys wrote about a little over a week ago - right about the same time that the sales agent was handing me a screener to the film, which I then knew nothing at all about, saying "Maybe you'd like this ..." Well, that screener was a random selection from the pile last night and yes, yes I do like it rather a lot. A gorgeously shot, seductively slow burning affair blessed with a lead performance from young Sebastian Gregory from Acolytes - watch this kid, he's going to be a big time star - this one puts a decidedly darker spin on adolescence in suburbia.
Shy and awkward, fourteen year old Daniel Hobson is a quiet boy living on a quiet street in the idyllic, picture-perfect suburb of Sunshine Hills. Viewing his world through the lens of an old camera, Daniel is – like many in the neighborhood – both entranced and disturbed by the sinister rumors that circulate in whispers from house to house.A third teenage girl has just disappeared without a trace, and while the police don't seem to have any answers, the locals all point to the derelict house at number 46, with the strange woman who stands at the front window from morning to night and the rumbling black Ford that creeps up and down the sleepy tree-lined streets once the sun goes down.
Daniel's primary obsession, however, is Suzy Thomson...
Check the trailer below the break!
There's certainly something to that trailer. While I found it a little busy and convoluted at times, there was a good creepy streak running right through it. And that ending line wrapped it up nicely. I'll be keen to see what happens with this film.