Stylish but barely mediocre overall

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Aussie trash film tries terribly hard to build sympathy for its characters--but not hard enough.With the dream state of the old farmer at the start, we think something might show--dream to present--to explain various happenings, dead birds and livestock.Nothing happens except jumping into shitty trucks with crap rifles--was this made in Tennessee--along with a weird slut who's pregnant (is she going to give birth to the animal-eating monster?) along with a lot of Jimmy Buffet knock-off music.Could have been lots of laughs, but NOTHING, nothing happens; half way through you realize the film takes itself seriously and begin to shut down into a state of stale popcorn.This film is a total waste of time.

Its as if the script writer attempted to portray how inner demons can cause an outer hysteria. These glum characters all suffer from apparent psychological torments from their past and present which they choose not to acknowledge. This repression causes a manifestation of their inner fears into a supposed creature that is killing their livestock. Its a mask for their inner fears and its easier to look outer rather than inner. With this film, far too much time has been spent on creating a "haunting atmosphere"...this time could have been spent on script revision and character building. Miranda Otto is capable of so much more and is quite a talented actress....however in this particular performance we only see an anxious character with violent dialog and no direction as to where, why or how ??.....The token old man narrative voice overs are seemingly placed randomly and fall flat every time. There can be no comparison to "Picnic at Hanging Rock"with this film. Not even Brenda Blethyn could come to the rescue. Overall a big disappointment, very boring and an attempt to build something up to a pointless nothing (it didn't even have any metaphorical value).

I thought this was a great film. If your looking for car chases, shoot outs, cops and robbers then you won't like it but I think there are enough of those out there.The movie is set around the killing of local livestock by a mysterious 'black' creature. What makes the movie a little unusual but well worth watching is that the characters are used as the backdrop to the livestock deaths and not the other way round. Over the course of the movie we learn some of the peoples past while they are trying to find what is killing their animals. In a nutshell the the events in the movie are quite metaphorical.Watch and you will enjoy it. Don't expect a blockbuster but still a good movie.

Ray Barrett is quite perfect: always a competent actor he rises to sublime heights here with his portrayal of a tortured soul caught in all the ghosts of his past. Brenda Blethyn was perhaps a surprise choice for the wife but handled the part very well. Richard Roxburgh gets better with every sighting and his versatility is astonishing. Otto was better than in the similarly dark "The Well" which I thought failed as a movie.