THE STORY – Sarah and Fergus, a hopeful young Aboriginal couple, give birth to their second baby. But what should be a joyous time of their lives becomes sinister when Sarah starts seeing a malevolent spirit she is convinced is trying to take her baby. Fergus, who can’t see it but desperately wants to believe her, grows increasingly worried as she becomes more unbalanced. Is the child-stealing spirit real or is she in fact the biggest threat to the safety of their family?
THE CAST – Shari Sebbens, Meyne Wyatt, Tessa Rose, Clarence Ryan, Toby Leonard Moore & Bella Heathcote
THE TEAM – Jon Bell (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 86 Minutes
Folk horror is so in right now. Of course, it’s nothing new, going back to the 70s with “The Wicker Man,” and even further back to the silent era with “Häxan.” But today’s horror filmmakers seem to be particularly drawn to the stories of yore, using old tales and legends to try and scare modern audiences. Rituals, traditions, and superstitions still has the ability to get under the filmgoers’ skin, and “The Moogai” hopes to do just that. The new film from writer-director Jon Bell uses Aboriginal Australian folk elements to tell its story. At the same time, it attempts to bridge the supernatural with the very real horrors of the Australian government throughout the 20th century, abducting Aboriginal children and placing them under the care of non-indigenous Australians. Despite its worthy ambitions, the film isn’t able to conjure up anything that even comes close to the horrors of this true-to-life practice, and is overall flat and poorly constructed.
The film opens with what’s undoubtedly its scariest sequence: a flashback showing white Australians attempting to steal Aboriginal children from their mother. The children hide from their would-be captors, and one of them disappears into a foreboding cave. It’s a mysterious, evocative opening that is unfortunately not matched by anything that follows. The rest of the film follows Sarah (Shari Sebbens), who’s first seen going through the traumatic birth of her second child, which leads to her temporarily dying on the operating table. Although baby and mother both come out of the hospital just fine, it’s an upsetting event that understandably rattles Sarah. While she stays home to look after the baby boy and her first daughter, Chloe (Jahdeana Mary), her husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) goes off to work every day. While doing her best to essentially raise her children on her own, Sarah begins to see eerie, supernatural signs. And the terrors don’t yield at night – in her dreams, Agnes (Precious Ann), the little girl who we saw get lost in the cave, who happens to be the sister of Sarah’s mother, Ruth (Tessa Rose), starts to appear, warning of something evil approaching. Sarah’s upsetting visions escalate to the point that her friends and family start to worry for her sanity and the safety of her children.
Sarah makes for an obviously sympathetic main character. Nobody wants to be haunted by the spooky spirit of their aunt, especially while juggling two young kids. Unfortunately, the screenplay does Sebbens no favors, requiring her to constantly accelerate up the emotional ladder from a ground level to “very very scared.” She constantly bursts out screaming in ways that are frankly hard to watch (and not in the way that the film might like it to be). Sebbens is at her best in the many silent close-ups, where she’s able to express her emotions without being brought down by the writing. In fact, nearly all of the actors struggle in a similar way. It’s such a prevalent issue amongst the cast that most of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the director. This directorial error is most evident in scenes where characters must react to something supernatural, which was very likely achieved on set by having the actors merely listen to the director describe what it is their character is scared of. In one almost laughable moment, Wyatt has to act as if he’s watching the titular demonic entity attempt to snatch his infant child, and all he’s able to muster as a response is a muted facial expression that looks more like someone smelling something unpleasant. Similarly, during the film’s climactic face-off between the Moogai (the Bandjalangic word for ‘ghost,’ a language that originates in New South Wales and South-East Queensland) and the humans it’s been tormenting, the young actress playing Chloe has virtually no reaction, physically or otherwise, to the hellish creature that’s pursuing them. Again, this must be at least partially blamed on the director.
The characters also have the unfortunate ailment that plagues so many lackluster screenplays: they’re apparently unable to keep from blurting out whatever’s on their mind regardless of the circumstances. Early on, a co-worker makes the unexpectedly rude comment to Sarah that “They couldn’t resist promoting a pregnant woman” – a shocking and bizarre moment that signals the general destabilizing tone of the screenplay that will follow.
The Moogai itself makes sparse, partial appearances for most of the film, leading up to a big reveal that’s, thankfully, effectively spooky. In the darkened scene where we first see its face, it’s hard to fully grasp the specific details of the creature, which makes the elements of its design that can be seen even scarier. But when it’s finally shown in full, the way it moves and its execution betray the film’s apparent low budget. This is one of those classic cases where a horror movie’s villain is scarier the less that’s seen of it, eventually culminating in a deflating conclusion. Actually, the most disturbing moments involve the peril that Sarah’s newborn baby goes through. Despite some extremely unconvincing dolls used in place of real live babies, it’s shocking to see how close to danger and injury the child comes throughout the film.
The movie is at its best when drawing comparisons between Australia’s history of racial oppression in the form of stealing children and its present day racial issues, such as when Fergus defends his inability to stand up for his wife to the authorities because they would have just seen him as an “angry black man.” But these subtle moments are few and far between. “The Moogai” doesn’t work as a horror movie and is only somewhat effective as a piece of metaphorical political storytelling.
