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Starring Travis McMahon, David Lyons
Directed by Jasmine Yuen Carrucan
The Australian outback is, as we know, a dangerous place. If it’s not serial killers or killer crocodiles, then it’s kidnappers who are willing to kill.
The fear of the unknown is readily exploited by filmmakers and Cactus uses the same vast, empty endlessness as a disquieting backdrop for psychological drama. In a nicely textured opening, John starts driving west.
His calculated journey breaks when he takes a body out of the boot. No questions asked, he’s delivering Eli to his keepers and cash is the motivation: “I’m just doing a job”, he explains, as much to God as to his victim. If your idea of hell is being driven into the desert, locked in a car without air-conditioning while The Wiggles are on endless repeat – loudly – Cactus is a film for you.
Carrucan builds an intriguing, tense and frequently brutal drama as two men fight to escape – emotionally and physically. Then? Well, nothing really.
Despite the raw power of the Wiggles, the story quickly deflates as it becomes clear that neither John nor Eli are as innocent as they seem. Their moral position grows less and less interesting before dissolving into an implausible and quite baffling ending by which time Cactus is well and truly cactus.
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