Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Karl Urban, Matthew Sunderland, Lois Lawn,
Simon Ferry, Tandi Wright, Paul Glover, William Kircher,
Georgina Fabish, Fayth Rasmussen
Written by Graeme Tetley & Robert Sarkies
Certification UK 15 | Australia MA
Runtime 100 minutes
Directed by Robert Sarkies
On November 13, 1990, David Gray — an unemployed man from Aramoana — took a gun and killed 13 people. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold — two high school students from Columbine, Colarado — took guns and killed 13 people. Chances are you haven't heard of the first incident, because it took place in a small, sleepy seaside town in New Zealand, while you can't possibly have avoided the second one because that took place in media-savvy America.
It's an interesting parallel and isn't here just to have a dig at the land of the soundbite. It's an attempt to illustrate the shock that must have greeted Gray's killing spree in New Zealand. Gray's rampage remains the worst mass murder in NZ history. Columbine is, what, one of about 20 such American incidents? A year? It's appalling that we've become pretty much inured to such acts of violence, but Out Of The Blue, Robert Sarkies' low-key study of the Aramoana case, goes some considerable way to restoring our sense of humanity to such terrible acts.
With no trickery — save for a couple of blurred shots designed to represent Gray's poor vision — Sarkies presents a very real take on this traumatic 24 hours, following under-armed local police in their hunt for the gunman while terrified residents remain trapped in their homes. This isn't the usual gloss, huge setpieces and acts of reckless bravey: this is real people responding genuinely and, occasionally, doing remarkable things. As a result, it's heartstoppingy moving and frequently bloody terrifying. In short, it's the United 93 of serial killer flicks, proof that you don't need emotional shorthand and standard movie tricks to respond to an onscreen victim. All you need is empathy. Sarkies treats the audience as a group of real people and you cannot help but respond in the same manner.
The performances, from both established actors and unknowns, are as good as they need to be, no more, no less. There's no showboating, no Daniel Day-Lewis facial tics, not even from Sunderland as Gray, who manages to invest the killer's obvious psychopathy with a degree of sympathy. This is not the 'by numbers' cliche you might expect, just a troubled man brought down by circumstances and obvious mental problems. Urban also impresses as a local policeman forced to cope under such unpredictable pressure, however it's not the quality of the acting that you'll take away from this film. No, it's the realisation that, behind the media circus and the easy cynicism, such slayings destroy individuals, families and communities. A much needed reminder and a painfully human — and humanising — experience.