Bad Rock

It was great to see the Auckland Heats open with a beautifully framed shot of Lion Rock, at Piha. More lovely cinematography followed, plus some recognisable faces (hello Wendy's burger guy!) and an intriguing premise. Well acted and put together, with a funny ending, but I did find myself wondering how the story fit together overall...

Very technically well shot and edited film. Great colour. Something very exorcism feeling about some scenes.. Especially the tortured bedridden female lead. Nice use of the Wendy mascot holding avos and tomatoes (and chainsaw!). Gave this one my 1 point vote for the audience fav.

Three and a half thumbs up for actually getting to Piha!! We lost our location midday on Saturday and had to hike (WALK) our team and all our equipment 5kms to our backup and like that wasn't enough. Definitely a great start and raised the bar pretty high. Effects pretty well done and tension well kept throughout the film. Good chainsaw ad too - maybe you'll hear from Stihl in no time >:)

Brilliant team logo featuring actual toes and actual jam. A mildly pretentious but pretty slick production. Don't want to give too much away, but everyone got a great laugh from a certain vegetable based cameo. The horror ending was a tad tacky but kept fresh enough with a little twist. The high-definition scenery was breathtakingly good, a really great way to start the first heat in the first year HD has been an option. If only all the shorts were this pleasing to look at.

When this film opened I realised the competition had kicked it up a notch this year with production values. It was so sharp and clear (presumably full HD) and looked amazing throughout. A story of a brother who was looking after his dying (I think or maybe just lost the will to live) sister. Had a somewhat dodgy priest hanging around, a strange lady carrying something in her hands and a classic turn by Dave (the Wendy's guy - which they played on wonderfully in the script). I thought the movie was 'purrin like a kitten' all the way through. I really enjoyed this film and it was my favourite of the first night. Some amazing visuals, good story and a great ending. There were a couple of scenes that seemed a bit WTF but that could have been that I missed something while trying to scribble my notes. Congratulations team and good luck for the finals.

A beautifully shot film that gets 2.5 stars for its cinematography, 0.5 stars for a hilarious cameo by Dave the Wendy’s guy, and nil stars for a difficult-to-follow story and rushed resolution.

Very well, put together horror based in Piha. Some good camera shots and editing. The actors took to their parts really well and apart from the odd blip in character portraits they all played their parts with great gusto. It is very hard to create a new story line on a genre that has really been around for a long time and I could not give this movie points for originality, but overall it was watchable and the genre was consistent and the story easy to follow.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Easily the best in our heat.

Very technically well shot and edited film. Great colour. Something very exorcism feeling about some scenes.. Especially the tortured bedridden female lead. Nice use of the Wendy mascot holding avos and tomatoes (and chainsaw!). Gave this one my 1 point vote for the audience fav.

Three and a half thumbs up for actually getting to Piha!! We lost our location midday on Saturday and had to hike (WALK) our team and all our equipment 5kms to our backup and like that wasn't enough. Definitely a great start and raised the bar pretty high. Effects pretty well done and tension well kept throughout the film. Good chainsaw ad too - maybe you'll hear from Stihl in no time >:)

A beautifully shot film that gets 2.5 stars for its cinematography, 0.5 stars for a hilarious cameo by Dave the Wendy’s guy, and nil stars for a difficult-to-follow story and rushed resolution.