Number 5:
For the first 2 ½ days of Frightfest this film was my shining light, yes I enjoyed Hatchet 2 and F was a lot of fun but it wasn’t until Red Hill’s credits rolled and I leaned over to my colleagues and said ‘If I see a film better than that this weekend I’ll be happy’ that my weekend finally got into full force.
Directed by Patrick Hughes and starring True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, Red Hill is set in small town Australia where young Police officer Shane Cooper (Kwanten) has moved with his heavily pregnant wife for a new start in life. On his first day after investigating a strange case of cattle mutilation, news is leaked that there has been a prison break and that the evil Jimmy Conway has broke free with plans on returning to the town where he was caught so he can release his bloody revenge on the ones who put him there. The story unfolds over the course of a day and night and delivers us enough action, violence, twists and turns to keep you thoroughly entertained throughout its 95 minute runtime.
Red Hill really is a great little addition to the Spaghetti Western genre; it brings enough new modern ideas to the table whilst holding dear to the nostalgic sensibilities that made this sort of movie great in the first place. Kwanten’s idealistic city boy rubs shoulders with small town personalities who don’t like what they don’t know. The town is run by Old Bill played by Steve Bisley, the Police Inspector whose word is the law, respected through fear he knows everything about his town. Being new meat Kwanten shrugs off the snide insults and gets on with his job until he looks deeper into the case of Jimmy Conway.
Conway’s silent killer is horribly scarred across one side of his face and basically looks like a cooler Jonah Hex. With his trusted shotgun grasped firmly in his hands he would be a great addition to any revenge tale. Played in very minimalistic manner by Tommy Lewis the character is able create an emotional performance with nothing more than a stare.
Beautifully shot it captures both the horror and splendour of the Australian outback. Â Hughes uses the surroundings perfectly by creating a sense of isolation from the outside world, so when Conway starts leaving bodies in his wake you totally believe that escape is not an option, it’s either fight or die.
When the manhunt actually starts the tension peaks and as soon as we get our first of many shoot outs we finally give the film a chance to stretch it legs. As Conway starts picking off Old Bill’s posse, with the rain pouring and on horseback Shane knows that it’s his time to save the day.  I completely bought Kwanten as a leading man; the awkward naivety that he brings to the character at the beginning to the gun slinging hero at the end was a great transformation to watch.
A score by Dmitri Golovko is reminiscent of Morricone with a few little shades of Once Upon a Time in the West, it gives the film a epic feeling and when we finally get a shot of Kwanten riding across an Australian plane engulfed by a thunder storm you just want to pump your fist in the air and be on a horse next to him.
The twists are a tad predictable but the film offers you enough to look past them, a very solid cast, a smart and affective script plus very stylistic directing cemented this film in my Top 5 of the festival and has made director Partick Hughes one talent that I will following closely in the years to come. If you like your Westerns I would recommend this film to you in a heartbeat.
8/10
