Review by Rich Wilson
Stars Tabrett Bethell, Freya Stafford,
Andy Whitfield, Marshall Napier, Liz Alexander | Written by James Rabbitts
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 89 minutes | Directed by James Rabbitts
Australia has a history of producing quality cinema in the horror genre, from the Seventies weirdness of Picnic At Hanging Rock and Walkabout to the recent efforts like Wolf Creek and the superb The Loved Ones. The vast remoteness of the outback features prominently in all the above, and rightly so. The total isolation of the country, the small, time-forgotten towns that frequent the dusty roads, the heat and deadly creatures all lend themselves superbly to paranoia and fear, staples of horror.
Set in 1979, The Clinic opens with young couple Beth and Cameron travelling along such a remote highway, heading home for the Christmas holiday. After almost getting run off the road by an ambulance they decide to spend the night in a quiet motel. Beth is heavily pregnant, having disturbing dreams about her baby surrounded by a sea of blood. Unable to sleep, Cameron heads out during the night to look for food, and upon his return finds Beth gone, the note he left unread. After calling the police and getting into a fight with the creepy motel proprietor he ends up arrested. Cut to Beth waking up naked in a bath of ice, screaming in pain, a ragged line of stitches down her stomach, her baby gone.
As first acts go, this is a cracker. Director Rabbitts sets up the premise with skill; sharp dialogue, widescreen photography and an instantly likeable pair of leads sucking you into the mystery of Beth’s disappearance. Sadly, while the rest of the film is a long way from falling apart it never tops the opening twenty minutes, instead moving into regular slasher-on-the-loose territory as Beth finds three other women, all victims of budget caesarean surgery, who are being stalked in the deserted slaughterhouse they find themselves in. And while there are further mysteries (shadowy figures watching the women on video, a coloured tag in a victim’s stomach) it loses focus by introducing one-dimensional characters we struggle to care for. Worse, Rabbitts seems to lose interest in Cameron, following him as he escapes from custody and then simply forgetting him half-way through with a plot thread he doesn’t deserve.
The reasons behind the babies being taken will keep you to the end, but it does feel like there’s a certain amount of filler getting you to the twist explanation - a scene involving wild dogs is particularly lazy - and this commits the all-to-frequent crime of low-budget horror by treating the audience as fools. The fact that Beth can sprint around mere hours after surgery and that a motel continues to supply pregnant girls isn’t called into question. The Clinic is far from a disaster, but it’s nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is, or as the premise would have you hope for.
EXTRAS Totally bare-bones, with nothing more than the trailer