Acolytes (2008)

Acolytes: Directed by Jon Hewitt. With Joel Edgerton, Michael Dorman, Sebastian Gregory, Hanna Mangan Lawrence. Three teenagers blackmail a serial killer.

“Acolytes is an Australian thriller, labelled an u0026quot;Ozploitationu0026quot; flick Iu0026#39;m still not 100% clear on what an exploitation flick truly is.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt tells the story of a group of friends who blackmail a serial killer. Of course what could possibly go wrong there? It pretty much writes itself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie isnu0026#39;t bad, it just feels a tad disjointed and when the credits rolled there were still a couple of rather important plot points that hadnu0026#39;t been fully addressed and thatu0026#39;s really rather frustrating.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStarring Joel Edgerton in a career best performance as our antagonist this neat little thriller looks and sounds the part so it saddens me to say it didnu0026#39;t even remotely meet its potential.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePerfectly watchable stuff but it just missed the mark a tad. Iu0026#39;m left feeling like if the film had an additional 30 minutes it could have been something special but this finished product feels like a book with a couple of chapters ripped out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCredit to all involved including the young cast, but it just didnu0026#39;t tick all the boxes for me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Good:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDecent soundtracku003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHanna Mangan Lawrence and Joel Edgertonu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Bad:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCouple of unanswered questionsu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFeels disjointed in placesu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThings I Learnt From This Movie:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe death of his wife clearly pushed Ned Flanders over the edgeu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAustralian teens are naturally more obnoxious than any other nationality!”