by Erin Free
Worth: $16.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Craig Alexander, Hannah McKenzie, Justin Hosking
Intro:
...kinky and enjoyable...
Thanks to the wonders of modern digital filmmaking technology, you can make a relatively slick, accomplished-looking film without the benefit of major backing or financial support, leaving the door happily and very wide open for individualistic cinematic storytelling free from obvious interference. As well as a digital camera and editing software, however, the other essential ingredient is talent. Yes, nowadays, literally anyone can make a film, but you still need to have the requisite smarts in order to create a good film. Enter Australian writer/directors Craig Alexander (who also stars) and Shelly Higgs, who have crafted something truly odd and charmingly original with their winningly biting black comedy Snatchers.
Set in an opaquely futuristic world where everything appears to be run by a slightly sinister corporation, Snatchers opens on hapless friends Mac (Craig Alexander) and Fettes (Justin Hosking), who are toiling as orderlies in a garish and grotesquely ramshackle hospital. Both desperate to separate and disparate degrees, the more gregarious Fettes suggests to the decidedly reluctant and more reserved Mac that the put-upon duo improve their chances by making off with a fresh corpse and then selling its organs on the black market. When Fettes and Mac get the recently deceased “Jane Doe” (Hannah McKenzie) out of the hospital and to their warehouse bolthole and its collection of medical instruments, the beautiful young woman ultimately proves to be a little more alive than the boys had hoped.
Shrewdly mixing together elements of horror, black comedy, drama, and even the musical (via one very peculiarly placed dance number that exists and appears out of nowhere), Snatchers reverberates with sneaky wit and boasts impressive performances, with Justin Hosking a standout as the most grubbily verbose and amusingly offensive of the trio, though Alexander and McKenzie do great work with their less showy roles. Full of twists and welcome surprises, the kinky and enjoyable Snatchers suggests exciting things in the futures of all the against-the-grain talents involved.]
Snatchers screens at Limelight Cinema in Tuggeranong in Canberra from 11 December 2025. Click here for more info.
