Is there an award for Most Onomatopoeic Movie Killing Spree? If so, we have a winner. It's impossible not to think of Mel Gibson's very fine running-man picture Apocalypto while watching pre-colonial warring Maoris go at one another with sticks and blades: picture an armed and dangerous haka. But there is a good deal more squelching in The Dead Lands.
The mayhem begins when bloodthirsty hothead Wirepa (New Zealand TV star Te Kohe Tuhaka) arrives in a neighbouring village citing his unburied ancestors as an excuse to declare war. Wirepa and his murderous, mohawked posse have genocide in mind: “I will fill your daughter’s uterus with dirt,” he warns.
Only the unexperienced youngster Hongi (James Rolleston) escapes the ensuing carnage. He is not, alas, any kind of warrior: his own dead grandmother laughs from beyond the grave – one of the film’s many spirit world excursions – when he vows to avenge his murdered relatives.
Not to be deterred, Hongi journeys into the ghostly terrain in order to recruit the monstrous cannibal who is said to live there. More squelching follows.
The Dead Lands is not perhaps the nuanced film we were expecting from director Toa Fraser, whose last two pictures were the whimsical Dean Spanley (2008) and Giselle (2013) with the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
But there’s at least as much choreography required for his new movie’s excellent hand-to-hand, hack-‘em-up conflicts. We’re told this is the first film to feature Mau rakau, a traditional Maori martial-art utilising a sharp, paddle-shaped weapon. This beautifully shot, brightly performed actioner serves that ancient discipline well.
