South of Sanity

UK, 2012  

One Antarctic winter isolated from the rest of the world ... but not from each other.

*** 1/2

Directed by: Mathew Edwards / Kirk Watson

Starring:  Riet Van de Velde, Paul Craske, Tony McLaughlan, Shaun Scopes, Melissa Landridge, Matt Von Tersch, James Wake, Dave Routledge, Mathew Edwards, Terri Souster, Kirk Watson, Johny Yates, Mike Shortt, Danny Edmunds

Choice dialogue: 
“Yes he’s fucking dead. He’s got a drill sticking out of his skull!”    

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review: JA Kerswell

Advertised as the first-ever fiction feature film shot entirely on the continent of the Antarctic - this slasher is a lot better than might be expected. Especially as it features non-actors who were real-life employees at a base, who spent their free time during one overwinter making a movie. A group of scientists already battling with declining morale, start disappearing one-by-one after a masked killer in a creepy CPR mask appears in their midst. Thousands of miles away from help, the cold outside is dangerous but something inside is even deadlier.
 
Isolation and cabin fever are already problems to deal with during the long winter shift. Manager Rob (Mathew Edwards - played by the real-life doctor at the base and writer/co-director of the movie), is struggling and is perturbed to find that someone has contacted HQ to say that morale is nose-diving. Things become worse when one of the scientists Matt (Paul Kraske) receives word that his wife has left him and, unable to go home, takes to sitting outside in the biting cold. The team manage to get him back inside, but later spots him outside again where this time it appears that he has tragically frozen to death.
 
Arguing amongst themselves as to who is to blame, Rob tells them that HQ will not risk a trip to come and get the body due to the declining weather. Doing what any self-respecting Brits would do in the situation, the team gets drunk and tries to make do - only for two of them to disappear during a tryst in a pressure chamber. During an autopsy, one of the team realises that Matt died of a stab wound and was actually murdered, but he is also killed before he can alert the others.

Due to the vast size of the base, the team don’t miss their fellow scientists until their number has dwindled to a handful. Is the killer one of them or has someone else come in from the cold? 

At first, the acting of the players in SOUTH OF SANITY might be a little distracting. As none of them are professionals their ability ranges from barely adequate to surprisingly good. However, as the film gets going, these naturalistic performances actually suit the material and the fact they are amateurs is quickly forgotten. It is helped that the movie has a professional sheen to it in other areas. It is not just some people messing around with a camcorder. The film is competently shot by now-renowned landscape cinematographer Kirk Watson - who also co-directs and appears here as the character Gaz. He used the opportunity to hone his skills and adapted a script written by Edwards. The idea for the movie came to him after a nightshift and the disconcerting realisation that he would be a sitting duck if a killer was on the prowl. It then also occurred to him what would happen if one of the team cracked and started to kill everyone at the base. 
 
The film features a droning soundtrack that amps up the feeling of isolation and dread. Many static long shots of the corridors are reminiscent of the passive eye of CTV, which amplifies the feeling of always being watched. However, there are also some impressive tracking shots and establishing camerawork that detail the vast, beautiful but unforgiving frozen wasteland on their doorstep. Even more impressive considering that the team created their own camera crane out of scrap steel found around the base.
 
A good comparison, of course, would be John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982). Both films thrive on paranoia and icy desolation. However, SOUTH OF SANITY is a slasher movie through and through. The killer looks especially creepy in their CPR doll mask as he or she stalks the scientists - even more so given that the actual mask is modelled on the face of a drowned woman pulled from the Seine in Paris in the 19th century. Although not a blood bath by any means, the film does feature some memorable gruesome moments such as a victim left with a still spinning electric drill stuck in his head. All the more remarkable given that the dead body make-up was achieved using children’s face paints and the blood was made from food colouring, white flour and syrup. The film is also quirkily British, with dialogue such as: “Kev, don’t be a twat.” 
 
Watson told the BBC in 2012: "We filmed a couple of day scenes on a weekend and the rest was shot in the dark just to make the film darker. … So our actors suffered a bit in the cold as we had people sitting outside for ages, or playing dead people lying in the snow. It became a bit tricky with the 'dead people' as they shivered, so they were carefully edited to get rid of the movement." He added: "We had several actors with mild hypothermia during the filming. The good thing was they had lived there for a year, so were pretty used to it.” Of the acting of his colleagues, Watson told The Herald: “We got some pretty good results, but if they weren't good at acting we just killed them off pretty quickly. I was one of those who were bumped off quickly – acting isn't one of my strong suits.”
 
Watson also told The Herald: “… some friends who have seen it have said it is much better than some horror films they've seen.” I tend to agree.  

BODY COUNT 12: 
Female 2 / Male 10

  1. Female seen with her eyes stabbed out
  2. Male stabbed in the neck with letter opener (daydream)
  3. Female killed (method unclear)
  4. Female falls onto spikes
  5. Female decapitated with a machete
  6. Female seen slashed to death
  7. Female seen slashed to death
  8. Male dies from machete wounds
  9. Female hit in the back with an axe
  10. Female is killed underwater
  11. Male killed (method unseen)
  12. Male killed (off screen)



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Kirk Watson and Mathew Edwards talk about making SOUTH OF SANITY

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