THE UNINHABITED

I went into this film with very low expectations.  Bill Bennett, the director, had only made one film previous that I had enjoyed (“Kiss Or Kill”) and he has appeared in the past to have a very dismissive opinion of genre filmmaking.  To go with all of this, the trailer for “The Uninhabited” that I had seen a few weeks prior, left me unimpressed.  However, when I saw that it was screening at MIFF, I decided to give it a chance and I am sure glad that I did.  

It has a very simple story: a marine biologist and her boyfriend are dropped off on an uninhabited island for a ten day holiday – just them and nature.  However when they awaken from their first night’s sleep, they see a series of footprints starting from where they slept until they disappear into the near-by forest.  The creep factor increases each night with the couple’s belongings being moved or missing, and one night they find out that someone had videotaped them while they slept.  Who is doing this if they are alone on this island?  I actually found this film quite a creepy experience, with the tension continually building.  The casting of the couple was perfect, as they had great chemistry and you actually believed that they were together (and had been for a while).   

When Bill Bennett introduced the film, he mentioned that a lot of what happens in the film happened to him in reality.  Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for the Q’n’A afterwards, where he said he would elaborate.  I have to talk about the last thirty seconds of the film, because it was a terrible decision to end the film the way they did (it goes against everything that has happened during the last ninety minutes), and it almost destroyed what I thought was a great film.  Again I should mention that my opinion of this film could be in the minority, as whenever I overheard anyone talking about “The Uninhabited” they did so negatively (so what, I enjoyed it!).  

One final thing, the film actually reminded me of a “true” ghost story a friend had told me years ago that chilled me to the bone, as some scenes in the film mirror the story told.

3.5 Stars - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival