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Review: Rippy – “a peculiar beast.”

Directed by Ryan Coonan
Starring Michael Biehn, Tess Haubrich, Angie Miliken

Those of us old enough to remember watching Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo way, way back in the day, will doubtless have a small chuckle over the deliberate play on names here with this zombie ‘roo flick from the Land Down Under, and indeed it is even referenced in one brief scene, where a startled police officer spots the titular, undead marsupial and mumbles “g’day, Skip” before bloody mayhem ensues.

Rippy is a bit of an odd beast – it really was not what I was expecting. With this title and concept, I was really assuming I would get a slice of silly but fun Ozploitation horror here, something to go on a nice double bill with, say, Razorback, some evening. And yes, there are some elements of that in Rippy, as you might expect, but there is also a lot more talking heads and drama going on, and back story in between the zombie kangaroo attacks.

Maddie (Tess Haubrich), is the only cop in an outback town, daughter of a local hero, always trying to live up to that inheritance. Despite carrying that weight of expectation, and a long-lived guilt over the accidental death of her hero father (which she blames herself for, despite only being a child at the time), she does her best to ensure the safety of her small town, and she seems to be genuinely respected and loved by her local community. We also see that she is not to be messed with when she sorts out two drunken workers who get too rowdy in the local pub, and make the mistake of testing her (she kicks their butt in short order).

Her late father’s best friend, Schmitty (the iconic Michael Biehn), lives outside the town, a loner, carrying too much psychological baggage from his time in the Vietnam War, where he served with Maddie’s father, and while largely withdrawn from town life (including his estranged former wife, Donna, played by Angie Miliken, Maddie’s aunt), it’s also obvious that he still cares deeply for Maddie, like a good uncle.

But when he reports to her that a giant, undead kangaroo is on the rampage, and seemingly immune to his rifle bullets, she doesn’t believe him – fairly understandably (especially given he hunts the outback around his remote property in boots, shorts and an old dressing gown!). It’s only when ripped-part bodies start showing up (starting with the drunks she dealt with earlier and told to walk home – which I think you could guess was going to lead to them encountering Rippy) she acts, but she thinks, again understandably, they have a human killer on the loose, and there’s a very likely suspect working nearby. Of course, eventually they realise that mad, old Schmitty was actually right all along, but the body count it racking up by that point!

It’s a peculiar beast though – I was ready, as I said, for some silly but fun Ozploitation, gorey horror, and that’s only a small part of Rippy, it spent much more time on Maddie, Schmitty and Donna, and their back-story and the shadow of her father. I must admit I resented this a bit, probably because my expectations meant some mental gear-changing, but actually once I had thought about it for a while, I actually appreciated that Rippy wasn’t just what I had predicted and actually did some things differently. It does mean that perhaps it falls between two stools for some viewers, I suspect, some would prefer more straight drama with a touch of horror, some would prefer it to embrace the schlock horror more fully, which could be a problem, but as I said, once I realised it wasn’t going the full Ozploitation schlock route I actually enjoyed it for being different to what I had expected. A mixed offering, for sure, but I found it fun enough for a late night screening.

Rippy is available on DVD, or to stream on demand now from Altitude Film Entertainment.

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