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DVD Caught Inside
 Run time: 93 min Rating: 5.5 Genres: Action | Adventure | Thriller Director: Adam Blaiklock Writers: Adam Blaiklock, Matt Tomaszewski Stars: Ben Oxenbould, Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon |
| Storyline Surfing charters are meant to be a trip to Paradise. With six male surfers stuck on a boat, there’s bound to be some friction. When two of the surf crew are replaced at the last minute with girls – the heat is turned way up. The one single girl on board – SAM – enjoys the attention. She has Bull and Rob wrapped around her finger. The frustrated, psychotic, Bull soon decides, “she’ll get what she’s asking for” and molests her. Outraged, the others abandon him on an island, but the ever-determined Bull returns, and takes control of the boat. He attacks the crew and holds them hostage. He harasses Sam and tortures the others. It’s a nightmare battle of wits, on board the yacht, as the five imprisoned friends must survive the fury of the psycho at the helm. Written by Paul S Friedmann |
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| Plot Keywords: two word title | |
| Details: Country: Australia Release Date: 10 March 2010 (Australia) |
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| Box Office Budget: AUD 850,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
I saw this on the first public screening so there were cast and crew there and the mood in the room of the general public in attendance was very supportive which made it for a very enjoyable experience on the whole.
Though Ben Oxenbould's performance is the stand out for me, the rest of the cast are also incredibly good and deserve much praise. What I liked most about this film was the believability of the characters, even the villain is someone you can imagine existing (and in school days I'm sure some of us met one or two people who were destined to turn out like the villain!). I very much enjoyed how characters acted in a such realistic manner. One of the male characters is completely de-masculinised throughout the villains reign and unable to protect the other characters, or his girlfriend, which was quite innovative and just screamed of authenticity. Too many films are full of testosterone fuelled 5 minute fight scenes, where as this films fights were clumsy and awkward, as they would be in real life.
The 'hero' of the piece (I can't remember the names properly but the brown haired fit looking guy who starts a romance with Sam) is written very well in not being too tough either, he's masculine, and brave, but he's no Vin Diesel, he's just a human trapped in a desperate situation doing the best he can.
My only criticism is that perhaps it took too long to get to the meaty part of the film when the villain takes control of the boat. The last movie of this type I saw was Donkeypunch, and though that was good in a popcorn movie kinda way, 'Caught Inside' is ahead of a lot of thrillers is the completely believable behaviour and realistic and natural dialogue, which in turn makes for some quite edge of your seat moments.
As an indie Australian film the cast and crew have done incredibly well in pulling together this enjoyable and tense little film and I'd definitely be proud to see it go overseas and do the indie festival circuits.
Caught Inside is a taught psychological thriller set on a Surfing Safari in the Maldives with a thought provoking script that revolves around a central character who is not unlike Max Cady from Cape Fear.
Director Adam Blaiklock and the crew spent a month or so in the Maldives filming Caught Inside. From the outset a requirement was that the actors were all competent surfers and the surfing scenes are all shot with realism. The story is cleverly and quietly developed with moments of real suspense and surprise that make the audience gasp.
Ben Oxenbould plays Bull, at first glance popular with his peers, a larrikin who can charm anyone when he wants to. However we soon learn that he has a dark side. He has issues with women and anyone who disagrees with him and his disturbing sociopathic tendencies cannot be hidden in the confined spaces of the vessel.
He uses his strength as an intimidation to others but, interestingly, never takes on the Captain played by Peter Phelps. It is not clear whether this is due to some past incident, his respect for authority or the fact that the skipper might be stronger than him but anyone else who crosses his path is fair game.
Despite the fact that the Captain laid out the ground rules at the beginning of the trip, it becomes evident that the cruise participants are on their own – miles from anywhere. No one can help. This plays into Bull's hands as his manic tendencies become obvious. There are subtle hints that he has shown this type of behaviour before and he becomes more and more menacing and unhinged as the film progresses.
Caught Inside was filmed with a tight budget but it does demonstrate how important it is to base a movie on a great script. The film essentially revolves around Bull and Ben Oxenbould is truly exceptional in the role. He has been known as a comic actor with his performances in Comedy Inc but this film provides him with an opportunity to display a real talent for a complex character role.
In some ways the other actors are incidental to Bull but they are generally all very competent.
It is disappointing that Caught Inside hasn't reached a wider audience. The sad reality these days is that it is very difficult to get wide distribution without major stars and studio backing. Independent film makers face an up hill battle to get their films screened in cinemas.
Highly recommended.
This small-scale, lost –at-sea-with-a-maniac thriller made it's mark in the 'Freak Me Out' genre section of the Sydney Film Festival. A self-funded independent production, it's the confident debut feature from established commercials and short film director, Blaiklock.
This handsomely shot movie looks set to punch beyond its weight There's a yacht-load of good actors – especially the 'Monster' and the 'Damsel In Distress character – and the tense situation is well established with the breathless climax delivering plenty of thrills, though perhaps not as much blood and gore as modern genre fans have come to expect. With Darclight signed as world sales agent and interest coming from international festivals, this handsomely shot movie looks set to punch beyond its weight.
The Hedonist, a beautiful ocean-going yacht, heads for the Maldives Islands in the equatorial Indian Ocean with a party of six Australians on a 12-day chartered cruise of renowned surfing sites at remote islands. The captain (Peter Phelps) reminds them that on board he is the dictator The women holidaymakers are the only non-surfers: practical Alex (Leeanna Walsman) is making a video documentary of the cruise; glamorous Sam (Daisy Betts) is escaping a bad online experience where her privately videoed striptease was leaked to MySpace and scored over a million hits. Standing out from the men is Buill (Ben Oxenbould), a mighty-muscled, lank-haired misfit, at first apparently sweet-natured and helpful, but soon revealed as a sociopath and stalker with a volcanic temper.
Oxenbould is terrific as the King Kong of this island paradise, and Betts is nicely equivocal as the potential victim who sometimes enjoys employing her sexual attraction. A climactic meal scene where the fearsomely calm Bull serves up an uncooked fish is particularly powerful. The actors clearly do their own surfing in some rousing on-and-under-the-waves sequences
What might appear to be a low-budget surfer-dude movie with sex, skin and stupid plot turns out to be a well-scripted, tightly told and well acted suspense film with plenty of sexual tension and a truly disturbing portrait of "the-killer-among-us". Best thing about CAUGHT INSIDE is it's in every respect believable. One walks away from the film truly suspicious that, beneath a thin veneer of humanity in some of us, scratch the surface and/or tweak the circumstances, we're simply packs of animals divided into the dominant and the submissive. There's hardly a moment of fluff, padding; e.g., even the surfing clips are minimal. This flick is further proof that hard work, not necessarily gobs of money, pays off. Like to see more from the makers.