Review of Coffin Rock (2009) by Col S — 22 May 2010

Australian horror films are always a pleasure to watch, if only for the fact that they're homegrown.

Coffin Rock first presents itself as a relationship drama, introducing the audience to this average-joe couple Jessie (Lisa Chappel) and Rob (Robert Taylor) Willis and their ongoing struggle to conceive a child - it's been three years and no luck.

Enter stage center, Evan (Sam Parsonson), the film's antagonist and cliched psychotic guy - one who is obsessed with Jessie, though for reasons unknown to the audience.

On a drunken binge one night, Jessie, in all her self-pity, sleeps with the mumbling pyscho loser.

She regrets it, of course, and bails mid way through the sex - but fastforward to a couple of days later and she realizes she is pregnant.

Is it her hubby's baby or the awkward psycho?

As Coffin Rock chugs along, Evan definitely believes so as things soon heat up and start to spiral out of control.

So is the premise for Coffin Rock, a psychological thriller/horror written and directed by Rupert Glasson.

The film is tense enough, with the survival of this couple being the only emotional thread to invest in, and things move along at a quick and tight pace.

Lisa Chappell as Jessie definitely gets the sympathy vote, as does Rob Taylor's character Rob who feels underdeveloped but also evokes a feeling of this average joe leading a quaint life.

That is, until Evan, the mumbling irishman pops up seemingly out of nowhere and threatens the lives of the two and everyone around them.

Parsonson plays the part cold and one note nicely but comes off more irritating than threatening.

He's got nothing on Michael Myers - but having said, I don't believe his character is written to aim for that - the real focus is on the heart at the center of the piece - the relationship between the couple. Or relationship(s) between friend, girlfriend or foe, as the film establishes.

Whatever the case, the film is entertaining for the most part.

Tension boils and explodes as the relationship is put to the test and things start to get weird and violent.

One can't shake off the feeling of familiarity as the psycho becomes obsessive and stalks in the shadows - and I think of the similar 2007 Aussie thriller Gone, which saw an enigmatic American in Australia stalking an unsuspecting couple.

Such comparisons can be drawn and the film is left off feeling too similar to those other stories of psychopaths.

As things get more violent though, actions by characters get more sillier and illogical and it's a shame that the film takes an abrupt nose dive from what was otherwise an interesting drama-thriller.

Production on the film looks great, the cinematography captures the idyllic setting perfectly, giving the film a cold and harsh feel.

Glasson's direction draws out the suspense long enough to keep the interest and things become boiling in the background nicely.

Glasson doesn't look to the cheap thrill shocks to get a rise. For the most part, anyway.

Where the film is a let down is in it's progression - when things start to go bad, they go silly and you can expect plenty of idiocy from the characters (Just call the cops, already!) and the usual random, psychotic outbursts of violence from Evan.

It's a conclusion it inevitably had to come to, though perhaps it could've been handled in a way that made Evan actually feel scary, rather than annoying?

Parsonson's performance is fine, I believe the written character and the direction is at fault. But I digress.