Killing Ground

Following in the now-standard Wolf Creek Ozploitation tradition of scuzzy outback rednecks doing nasty things to clueless city slickers, director Damien Power's slow-burning shocker covers way too much familiar ground to totally succeed as an original survival nerve-shredder. But what does crank the pitiless tension up smartly is the flashback device of interweaving storylines spanning two distinct timelines a few hours apart. In one, a young couple on a camping trip to an isolated beach discover an abandoned tent. In the other, two savage country bumpkins on the lookout for cheap thrills torment and torture the tent's owners. Playing with genre expectations as much as jumping around in time to instil dread and disquiet, it's a very compelling and skilfully well-made chiller, but a brutally violent watch many may find cruelly uncomfortable.