Australian Indie flick Marauders is a film that sets out its stall pretty quickly; it's clear that it's going to be a nihilistic, yet poorly made thriller right from the word go. I do feel like I have to be slightly forgiving to the film because it's clear that the filmmakers had no budget and couldn't even afford decent actors; but unfortunately, this film is just rubbish so it's hard to be too forgiving. The only thing that Marauders really has going for it is the nihilistic atmosphere, which would have been good and impressive if only the rest of the movie was good enough to support it such a way that it could be taken seriously. There's not really much of a plot and the film begins by introducing us to a bunch of wayward Australian delinquents. We find out what kind of people they are and then the plot starts properly as we witness a hit and run accident (that is actually one of the only good moments of the film) and two psychopaths band together to chase down to the car driver who was responsible and get their revenge.
The film is obviously playing up to the classic films of the exploitation genre and indeed at one point in the film the characters are directed to 'the last house on the right', but while the grittiness is captured through the poor production values, nothing else is and most of what goes on in this movie is fit only to laugh at. The most ridiculous thing about it is undoubtedly the performers. Obviously acting isn't all that important in a film like this, but here it's just ridiculous and really rather boring as a result. The actors just don't seem interested in the film and it's hard to care about anything they're doing when it's being portrayed in such a dull manner. Some of the acting is so rubbish it actually is painful to watch, and even worse than this is the fact that all the "psychos" look so unconvincing that one has to question how they ever managed to get cast. We end up with actors that don't look right and don't have the talent to carry the thing off, which is never going to work. Thankfully, Marauders is very short at just seventy minutes so that is a relief but I was still really bored by the end and while I can respect the director somewhat for getting this off the ground; his film still isn't very good.
