Dreamtime's Over (II) (2009) User Reviews

hit me in the head with a hammer

[meatlover81 · 1/10 · 15 November 2009]

Yep, my title says it all and its what i said to a mate when i was watching it. You don't understand how bad this movie is until you watch it. its like a monkey found a football and said i can banging that. He's trying, he's getting the idea but as he goes he keeps falling off and jumping right back on not releasing that everyone watching is in tears of laughter. ah...poor monkey. This movie is the monkey. There are blatant attempts to make this international product by making 2 of the leads American. but their accents are so bad that the dog down the street started to howl in pain, i'm serious. but how's this for editing: 2 cars, 2 cars, 2 cars, 3 CARS, 2 cars, 2 cars. Yep the editor is numerically dyslexic(if thats not spelled right i don't care because the film maker sure as hell didn't) I didn't want my money back though, i never do, because i think of these movies as a cathartic experience. I do want people to know that we do make good movies in Australia, its just that our genre stuff isn't quite hitting the mark right now.

Uh lets prey on something else.

[lost-in-limbo · 2/10 · 7 December 2009]

Not good. Not good at all. "Prey" is a very low-budget independent Australian supernatural horror feature set in the devastatingly ominous outback involving a group of young adults on a 4WD road-trip to a secluded beach, but get side-track when they take a detour to find a water-hole and end up encountering a centuries old Aboriginal curse known as Kadaicha. The bizarre concept had something there to work upon and there are some odd developments (like its hip opening introducing its characters and a sensual lesbian undercurrent), but in the end it's poorly conceived, embarrassing and lousily executed to simply make it banally camped-up, jumbled b-grade hokum. Outside of the expressively edgy location photography and "What the… ending involving the survivors smacking lips", not much works or remains interesting. Aside from some neatly realised imagery, when it came to the shoddy special effects is risibly done (sometimes the deaths happening off-screen or out of shot) and the cheapness of that made the atmospherics weakly orchestrated. The pumped-up direction went hand-to-hand with its brisk editing like something from a music video clip in probably trying to cover its low-scale image. There's nothing horrific about it, as the daftly plotted story seems to get worse as it mopes along with its laughably inconsistent developments and misguided timing. When the terrible script comes to the conclusion to why all of this weird stuff is happening to these people, it's mindlessly goofy and unfulfilled with a trashy ending. Not to mention quite dull, as it heads really nowhere when they go four-wheel driving. Not helping was the clunky rock / metal soundtrack inclusions that felt out of place in certain scenes and destroys any ability of cementing a suspenseful mood. The performances don't fair any better, either being leaden or overdone with their stereotypical characters. Jesse Johnson (that's Don's son) and actresses turned singer now actress again Natalie Bassingthwaighte take the lead and would be the only recognizable names to sweat it out. Well more for being Don's son for Jesse (as what else has he done) and Bassingthwaighte would have an Australian following. Again the story is supposedly inspired by certain true events, which I never even heard about. The film might get it fans, but I'm not one.

Probably the worst Australian film ever made.

[moviescrote · 1/10 · 3 February 2010]

Somehow I was under the illusion that Prey was in some way based on an aboriginal legend... Funnily enough not one aboriginal person was to be seen throughout the whole film. It was by far the worst Australian made film I have ever seen. Not one redeemable feature to be seen and the CGI snakes just topped it all off. Audio quality was slightly better than a cassette recording from the early 80's, which was most helpful in muffling the atrocious dialogue that plagued this drivel from start to finish. Characters were the kind of stereotypes that give stereotyping a bad name, and the only soundtrack that could be mustered was the occasional Rogue Trader's track obviously donated by the hapless lead NatBass. For a budget of $4m++ the producers would have been better off putting the cash into an ING account and at least getting the interest on it - not to mention saving all concerned the embarrassment of having their name to the film. I can only assume that some of the positive posts on this site regarding Prey are the contrived efforts of those responsible for this diabolical abortion of a motion (as in bowel motion) picture. Avoid like syphilis.

Utter garbage.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 12 February 2014]

Six obnoxious friends take a trip across the outback where they stumble across an ancient curse.

The utter confusion of Outback's opening scene, which features bad CGI serpents and a naff green-eyed zombie, had me concerned, but I knew that I had picked a total stinker as soon as the film began to introduce its unlikeable central characters using that tired technique of freezing the frame on each person as they are doing something that typifies their personality, applying a distressed filter to the still, and then stamping their name next to them in a grungy typeface. The use of that particular uninspired editing gimmick always sets the alarm bells ringing…

But that's just the start of what proves to be one of the most irritating, ill-conceived, poorly directed and generally unfathomable movies that it has ever been my misfortune to see. The novelty editing and directorial affectations continue unabated (split screen, grainy B&W filters etc.), director Oscar D'Roccster clearly under the impression that he's Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, or Robert Rodriguez, and the film only gets more bewildering as time passes, the true nature of the curse never being adequately explained.

One-by-one, the horrible characters are bumped off by unknown forces, the lead girl (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) gets sweaty, bloody, takes a shower fully clothed and changes her sexual orientation (!?!?), and the optional extra of a chainsaw on one of the 4x4s comes in extremely handy.

Aussie film-making has hit new depths

[robodog-5 · 1/10 · 11 October 2009]

I have never felt the urge to write a comment on IMDb before because i either like a film and vote or hate it enough to enjoy it and vote and leave it at that. Until i met Prey, that is. This is the most inept piece of film making to come out of Australia since the good old 80s 10ba system was throwing us some trash. there is nothing redeeming about this film and at 76 minutes it has overstayed its welcome by a good 20 minutes. The entire cast is Australian but for reasons never explained, of the 6 people 4 of them are Americans in Australia (you know they're not really because the accents are atrocious). This film, and i call it that loosely, was developed with Film Victoria. How? Why? I cannot comprehend. This is a movie that is begging for a bit of T & A but can't muster the courage to be the blatantly exploitative movie it needs to be. For gods sake you can even see people swearing when the rerecorded voice is trying to cover it up. This is a testament to Australian film-making at the moment. no courage, no balls and no talent. No matter how flawed they may be, indie produced no budget genre fare (like Gabriel, Undead and The Dark Lurking)are at least trying to be a hell of a lot more than the sum of their parts should be, and for the most part they are succeeding. No wonder all these guys are trying to get to the states, and good luck to them i say!

The only thing horrifying about Prey is that it cost over $4m to make!

[jvarney81 · 1/10 · 3 February 2010]

Australian cinema sinks to an all time low with the release of Prey. A pitiful "horror" film which runs for little over an hour (which in my opinion is a little over an hour too long...) Natalie Bassingthwaighte makes a very poor attempt at an American accent and the inconsistencies throughout the film are unbelievable.

I've read that the producers have tried to flog the movie (post-production of course) as a tongue-in-cheek horror film which spells a very convenient means of covering up what has essentially turned out to be a flop.

I saw the movie at a Video Ezy last week and when I asked the guy behind the counter whether it had proved popular I was informed that I would be the first to rent it in the 3 months they'd had it. That should have spelled a warning.

This movie is destined for the $2.95 bargain bin at a Big W near you!

Stay well away from this stinker.

Filmmakers' fear of the Aussie accent

[paultoddking · 3/10 · 5 January 2022]

This movie was not great. That much is fairly certain. Why do Australian filmmakers insist on using the American accents? I find it infuriating that there is this attitude that if it doesn't feature Aussie actors doing fairly weak American accents, it's not a real film! The same can be found in many genre movies locally produced in Aus. Example "Love of my Life 2013." Shot in Sydney with a very Australian cast. All American accents except for Peter O'Brien who chose not to and good for him! We should be proud that monsters lurk in the darkness down under too!

Not that we necessarily care, but...

[sambson · 1/10 · 11 June 2019]

For those who've questioned why or how this (likely the worst Aussie Horror film ever made) came into being - I would encourage you to find an in depth article on the ScaryMinds website. I'll give you the initial gist, in case you feel you've already wasted enough of your time on earth on this film. John V Soto did actually write the script the movie is based on, but the original Director (George Miller - no, not that George Miller) diverged significantly and it went straight into the gutter. The original script would actually still make a fine film; that's how different the product is from the blueprint. The Producers only had two options: 1) write the whole thing off and flush the investors money down the tiolet or 2) go with what they had and put a brave face on it. It was their money on the line and they chose (many say unwisely) the second option. Several of these sentences come straight from the ScaryMinds article and they get all the credit for them.

Can't decide: best or worst Australian movie?

[jessicaleeday · 10/10 · 9 October 2009]

The draw card for this movie was that it starred Natalie Bassingthwaighte. The cover gave the impression that it was a b-grade Australian horror movie, which I must admit I am usually a fan of. The first blow was finding out that although all but one cast member was Australian, most of them wore pretty poor American accents. It was confusing for us at the start as we couldn't actually figure out if it was purposely bad or if perhaps we had misread the cover and it wasn't even set in Australia. Alas, it was simply that without explanation or reason the Australians were portraying Americans..in Australia?

The fun of this movie is based on catching all the mistakes. At one point there are three cars driving along a desert track when there aren't actually enough people alive to drive them... The reactions to close friends and lovers deaths are generally rather perky. Apparently the death of loved ones is a usual occurrence in Australia and the holiday must go on.

Who knew that happily coupled American/Australian girls were so inclined towards lesbianism during a time of crisis?

The first time I see a back-from-the-dead friend with his face half burnt off (and still flaming), I now know that the appropriate reaction is to gaze lazily at him and casually speak his name as he picks me up and throws me into a pit of snakes.. The utter lack of realistic motivation to escape was fun to watch, I know that if I were just witness to multiple deaths in the desert I would definitely want to take a quick lesbian shower to wash off before escaping from a 'curse'. Speaking of the 'curse'... I don't believe it was actually mentioned that there was a curse, the 'making of' feature informed me that it was supposed to be an Aboriginal curse and that the Aboriginals who auditioned for the role of the 'bad guy' were actually offended by the material and declined to take the role, not surprisingly.

I felt that the movie was not only offensive to Aboriginal culture, but to women, lesbians, Australians, Americans and the general movie watching public. I sure would like to know where dear old 'Kate' got her medical certifications...Kate has taught me that in an emergency crisis where there is a pyramid shaped object piercing through someones chest, the best way to stop the gushing blood is to try and pull the object through the chest from the skinniest end, making sure the fat end comes right through the chest...making the biggest hole possible.

Fun, fun, fun! I actually ended up enjoying the complete absurdity of this movie! I will admit I was disappointed that the main characters couldn't just have their natural accents, but it was so fun every time they spoke out of their intended American accents to be like "that's sooo Aussie"

Overall, a fun movie! The end

really cool film that's a lot of fun. A group of 20 somethings head out into the outback on a 4WD adventure, but are lured by an ancient indigenous curse to a sacred site

[topcatfilms-639-719665 · 9/10 · 10 February 2010]

this is a really different style of film making. It has a really cool, edgy feel, and once they get out of the city and into the desert, the environment takes on like a storybook feel... really eerie and cool. The evil presence that is causing all the damage, is incredible. What happens is that the zombies are lit from within, and they have these burning cinders coming off them. This underlying theme of fire follows through the story, up until you get to the ending where the weird guy at the campfire is chanting and doing aboriginal drawings on Kate's stomach. He's the guardian of this insatiable monster that's been awakened (by the revenge killing the opening scene) and he's serving the monster by luring victims to the site. You learn from the voice-over of the wise old woman at the end that the revenge killing has awakened the dark side of a creature that was previously a source of protection for the land and the people and has been slumbering for centuries, deep under the ground. But the revenge killing has awakened its dark side and it now needs a constant diet of tourists to satisfy its hunger. At the end when Kate kills the monster's keeper (weird guy), the monster reverts to the previous benign being and all is well with the world again .... or is it???????? Sensational soundtrack too

Sinister and funny!

[screengems · 10/10 · 30 January 2010]

This was the best thing about Christmas this year, being stuck in 200 feet of snow and ice in my relative's crummy house in Buffalo for the holidays. My cousin brought the DVD from Sydney, Australia and was going gaga over the lead actress. She didn't know the lead actor was an American, Miami Vice Don Johnson's son.

I went into this expecting something like a low budget Aussie Donnie Darko meets Plan 9 from Outer Space and loved it! I don't understand some of the plot lines why these kids all knew each other, but who cares? Stick a bunch of hot looking guys and girls in some aboriginal sacred sight with a nutcase and a curse and chainsaws and aromatherapists and was a lot more enjoyable than Transformers 2 for my money!

The music rocked (Ladytron!) and it was pretty funny and there were two pretty good scares though the girls were pretty freaked out most of the way through.

The end credits and 'making of' were very funny and all in all the best 90 minutes of Christams 2009!

I'm still not sure what exactly what we saw but we're gonna see it again with a living room full of beer!

What an insult

[whipthedog · 29 October 2011]

I am reading the reviews and totally agree with all of the negative comments regarding this film. Then out of nowhere ,three perfect tens. What a joke. This is without a doubt the worst film made ANYWHERE. The script is nonsensical. I only grabbed it off the shelf at the DVD shop because Natalie Bassingthwaighte was in the cast. Why the hell did they have to make her American. That totally screwed the movie experience right from the start. We have been bombarded with American films, TV and music for the last 50 years. Why the hell do we also have to include American characters in our home grown films. We seem to be trying so hard to please Americans. As mentioned in other reviews, the lack of any sort of normal human reaction when someone meets a gruesome death is amazing.