Killer creature lurks in a tank in NZ horror flick

The Tank has a lot going for it: the characters are strong, the setting is effectively creepy and the monster looks suitably horrid.

Luciane Buchanan in The Tank (2023)

The Tank (MA15+)
In cinemas
★★½

While watching The Tank, a rather traditional horror film, I was reminded of one of my favourite episodes of The Goon Show, that hilarious BBC radio program of the 1950s, in which a grim-voiced narrator frequently referred to something unspeakable in – pause – The Canal (spoken with heavy emphasis). In New Zealand director Scott Walker’s movie the nasty “thing” is not in a canal but in a water tank located under a house near Hobbits Bay on the coast of Oregon.

In a prologue that takes place on May 2, 1946 – your guess is as good as mine as to why such a specific date is used – a man attempting to climb out of the tank is pulled back inside by something to meet a presumably grisly fate.

The bulk of the film unfolds in 1978. Ben (Matt Whelan) and his partner, Jules (Luciane Buchanan) own a pet shop in Oakland, California. The couple, and their cute daughter, Reia (Zara Nussbaum), have been struggling to make ends meet and so they’re delighted to be informed by a lawyer, Amos Tilbury (Mark Michinson), that Ben has inherited a house near the sea in Oregon from his mother, who has recently died in an insane asylum.

Ben was completely unaware that his parents owned property; he had always been told that his father and sister had been killed in a car accident. Now it seems this may not have been the case.

The family duly arrives at the remote location. The house, despite being empty for at least 30 years, looks to be in pretty good condition, and a real estate agent (Ascia Maybury), who arrives on the scene in no time at all, tells the couple that they also own a chunk of the adjacent coastline and that she can easily find a buyer if they want to sell. But the film has little time for real estate agents and the hapless woman is attacked and consumed by the Thing on her way back to her car.

It seems that Ben has inadvertently unleashed the Thing – or maybe Things – that killed his Dad all those years ago and the creature, which seems to be aquatic, possibly related to the salamander Jules talks about back in the pet shop, is very hungry after all those years in the dark, dank tank.

The Tank has a few things going for it. You care about the characters more than is often the case in this kind of movie, and the creepy, isolated setting is effectively used. In addition, the very nasty creature, when fleetingly revealed, looks suitably horrid, thanks to the skills of the visual effects people at Wellington’s Weta Workshop.

But this tall tale of a carnivorous creature lurking for decades in a water tank is ultimately too predictable to cut it as a major horror movie.

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Happy 50 (Plancha) (M) (three)
In cinemas
★★★

Happy 50 is an amiable, formulaic, French comedy.

The well-worn theme, in which a number of old friends get together to celebrate the birthday of one of them, holds no fresh surprises and it’s left to an attractive cast to supply what energy and entertainment the film holds.

To celebrate the 50th birthday of Yves (Guillaume De Tonquedec) his friends and their partners plan to fly to a Greek island. But at the airport they learn the flight has been cancelled and the airline offers no prospect of seats being available for a fortnight.

So they reluctantly accept Yves’s suggestion that instead of basking in the Greek sunshine they holiday in the Brittany chateau he has inherited. The weather in Brittany is not noted for its warmth and sunshine, even in summer.

The four couples are Antoine (Lambert Wilson), Anna (Caroline Anglade), Baptiste (Franck Dubosc), Laura (Lysiane Meis), Laurent (Lionel Abelamski) and Nathalie (Valerie Crouzet) and they are soon joined by old friend Jean-Michel (Jerome Commandeur), who has recently returned from Costa Rico with his partner Valentina (Alice Ilenas).

The weather is, as predicted, mostly wet and the friends quickly get bored. Yves is a pompous host full of dull stories about his Breton ancestors, while Baptiste is upset to learn that the group has left him out of their tennis club. They play trivial pursuit and other games, drink a lot, and discuss secrets that should have stayed secret – notably, when Antoine gives Yves an analysis of his DNA it quickly proves to be an unwelcome birthday present.

The film, directed by Eric Lavaine, is predictable but likeable enough thanks to the relaxed, appealing performances.

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Petrol (MA15+)
In cinemas
★★★★

Petrol, Alena Lodkine’s second feature, after the very promising Strange Colours (2017), confirms that here is a young Australian filmmaker of exceptional talent. With a clear eye and a sharp wit, Lodkine – whose background is Russian – has made a film that tackles a variety of subjects, including female friendship and the process of artistic creation itself.

The central character is, like the director, the daughter of Russian emigre parents. Eva (Nathalie Morris) is a Melbourne-based film school student struggling to complete her thesis film. We first meet her as she records sound on a windy beach. She lives with her Russian-speaking parents and occasionally unburdens herself to them (“Making films is life – you can’t teach it,” she opines).

Her parents are evidently no admirers of the current leadership of the Russian Federation: her mother has nightmares about being pursued by Vladimir Putin who is intent on raping her.

One evening Eva encounters Mia (Hannah Lynch), an actor and performance artist, who is playing a role in a vampire movie being made by some of Eva’s fellow students. The two meet when Eva finds a bracelet that Mia dropped in an inner-city alley. Mia buys her a drink, the pair become friends, and Mia offers Eva a room in the house in which she lives. Eva decides she wants Mia to star in her film, but Mia proves strangely elusive.

From what we see of Eva’s film it’s more documentary than fiction. It’s a portrait of Bella (Becky Voskoboinik) an elderly woman who dabbles in the mystic arts, reading tea leaves and making sinister prophecies involving the supernatural. Through Mia, Eva meets Robert (Daniel Fredericksen), and forms a relationship with him.

Petrol is composed of short, abrupt scenes in which Eva’s struggles to complete her film are intimately followed.

In addition, we enter the world of Eva’s dreams in which she sees distorted images of herself.

The film takes a somewhat satirical approach towards film school processes and the central performance is very attractive. After the very enigmatic conclusion the viewer is left with a great deal on which to ponder.

The title is unexplained, though there’s one shot of petrol on wet tarmac that has turned into strange colours, perhaps a reference to Lodkine’s earlier film.