Redd Inc.

by Katerina Sakkas | September 18, 2012 16:23 | Edited September 18, 2012 22:37

“...audacious and original.”

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This fresh new Australian horror film boldly pulls the genre back from the wilderness, where it seems to prefer to reside, and places it in its natural habitat – the office. Watching Redd Inc. is like jumping on a ghost train that takes you through nightmare interpretations of real-life situations. Like the ghost train, Redd Inc. offers a lurid, heightened experience, too stylised to be realistic, but with an underlying truth that sparks recognition. And as might be expected from a film boasting the services of horror effects supremo, Tom Savini, the gore is highly impressive.

Newcomer, Kelly Paterniti, brings chutzpah to the film’s heroine, while Nicholas Hope delivers his own special brand of lunacy as Thomas Reddmann, a veritable “boss from hell” whose corporate platitudes are hilariously apt in this context of entrapment, torture and slavery. It must be noted that Redd Inc.’s action takes place in the kind of American-accented nowheresville that characterised The Spierig Brothers’ Daybreakers. This doesn’t really affect the viewing experience, especially given the film’s stylisation, but it’s a shame to see Australian filmmakers masking their product’s nationality, especially when the product is otherwise audacious and original.

Special features include the feature-length documentary, Chained to the Desk: The Making of Redd Inc; an extensive and candid interview with horror effects guru, Tom Savini; as well as Tom Savini Splatter Masterclass where the master reveals how to make gore FX on a shoestring budget; a MEG Tour with screenwriter and professional geek Anthony O’Connor; a handful of deleted scenes, an alternate opening and a teaser trailer.