NUMBER 15

Detective Mallory and big mouthed Detective Inspector Munro head out to the farm to investigate a sinister crime after a kid gets knobbled, with the burnt banana and coffee smell of the 'tropics' immediately setting the scene as they drive in. Cue hysterical grieving mother and red herrings before we get to the scene of the crime.

I'm a bit torn on this one because I'm genuinely not sure if the team was trying to play things seriously, or as a deliberate Z-grade black comedy. I have to assume the latter given the constant whistling motif every time the very obvious killer said something. But here's the thing...if you're going for something to be a deliberate black comedy it only really works if there are humorous elements that come to light when the material is delivered directy.

...So maybe the team was playing it seriously? In which case in my personal opinion the film had significant shortcomings because there was practically no tonal differentiation in any of the line deliveries. Everything being talked about so flatly made it hard to resonate with any of the characters. When we finally get some emotion it's just before that mean spirited ending of "yes I'm the killer you will be my 15th victim!" which was just absolutely woeful in my book. The comedic relief of a gunshot that goes nowhere near the attacker also missed the mark, no pun intended.

On the positive side there were some really nicely framed shots, but unfortunately this got nullified by the handful of fuzzy out of focus shots that were peppered throughout.

Story: 1/5
Technical: 2/5
Elements: 2/5
Overall: 1/5