Out of the Blue

Stars: Karl Urban, Matthew Sunderland, Tandi Wright, Simon Ferry, Lois Lawn, William Kircher, Paul Glover, Georgia Fabish

Director: Robert Sarkies

Quite why film-makers want to re-create such headline massacres as this is a question for them and their conscience.

But, in rural New Zealand in late 1990, a loner called David Gray (Sunderland), bitter with the hand fate had dealt him, and tipped over the edge by the demand for a new two-dollar bank charge, snapped.

He took the high-powered rifle he had just bought and, after the initial killing of a complaining neighbour, prowled his village and killed 12 more people, including three children.

Urban stars as the local cop who has the killer in his sights, but can't bring himself to pull the trigger, in this stop-go movie which can't bring any cohesion to its story, but does boast stunning seascape photography by Greig Fraser that makes flat waves lapping on to the shore look like blood seeping into the community.

David Quinlan

New Zealand 2006. UK Distributor: Metrodome. Colour by Kodak.
103 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 09 Mar 2008