Australian horror is experiencing something of a renaissance currently. With golden child 'Talk To Me' taking the world by storm - the first Aussie film to be picked up by adored indie distributor A24, making over US$92 million at the box office while costing just US$4.5 million to make, and with a sequel currently in the works - it's no surprise eyes are turning Down Under for more scares. The film's producers are prepared - the team who also backed 'The Babadook' are back with another horror, 'The Moogai', this time with an Aboriginal storytelling at its heart.
Sarah (Shari Sebbens, Australia's 'The Office', 'The Gods of Wheat Street' 'The Sapphires') may be heavily pregnant but is still working hard to close a huge deal for her legal firm. Juggling this, a recent reunion with her birth mother, Ruth (Tessa Rose, 'Top End Wedding', TV's 'Redfern Now'), and the pressures of being a wife and mother to husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt, 'We Are Still Here', ABC's 'Mystery Road') and daughter Chloe (Jahdeana Mary, in her debut role) become too much when the pregnancy becomes complicated, an emergency C-section is required, and Sarah ends up in cardiac shock which leaves her momentarily dead. Upon being discharged from the hospital it's stressed to both Sarah and Fergus that she must take it easy, but horrific nightmares and glimpses of a mysterious girl (Precious Ann, in her debut role) make that a challenge. Ruth warns Sarah that her home needs protection, but Sarah pushes this aside as superstition. It's not until the Moogai (Paul Chambers) tries stealing the newborn baby boy that Sarah must act - and turn to ancient traditions to finally vanquish it.
SWITCH: 'THE MOOGAI' TRAILER
Written and directed by Bundjalung and Wiradjuri man Jon Bell (the debut feature from the writer of ABC's 'Mystery Road', 'Cleverman', 'The Gods of Wheat Street' and 'Redfern Now'), it's clear to anyone with an understanding of modern Australian history that this is more than just a horror film. It's an allegory for the Stolen Generations, with the Moogai (a word that means a kind of boogeyman in the Bundjalung language) a stand-in for European settlers, particularly those who forcibly removed children from Indigenous Australian families. This horrific act took place for more than half a century and directly affected tens of thousands of children, all of whom were denied any access to their culture.
"As Indigenous filmmakers, we aren't truthfully allowed to exorcise our cultural demons cinematically," says Bell. "As soon as we do, it's inevitably derided as didactic. Or depressing. And that's true, stories without hope are depressing. That's why using the horror genre to tell these kinds of stories is the most fitting place, because they aren't stories of triumph, or even survival. Sometimes they're just out-and-out horror. Nobody gets out whole."
The film reflects more than the injustices of the past, however. It shows the engrained racism that Indigenous people in Australia still face, even those like Sarah and Fergus, who have achieved the Western principles of status and wealth. Despite the couple having little connection to their culture, authority figures still irrationally judge them in a harsher light than their Caucasian acquaintances due to their skin colour.
While I firmly believe there's an important story to be told of the Stolen Generations and enduring racism, with horror being an ideal vessel for taking it to a wider Australian and global audience, I fear that's the biggest thing lacking throughout 'The Moogai' - genuine horror.
While I firmly believe there's an important story to be told of the Stolen Generations and enduring racism against First Nations peoples, with horror being an ideal vessel for taking it to a wider Australian and global audience, I fear that's the biggest thing lacking throughout 'The Moogai' - genuine horror. You have moments that should legitimately illicit fear - this demonic spirit stalking your family, an unrelenting monster, the dread that your child may be taken from you forever. Yet at no time does the anxiety feel high enough, does the tension feel palpable, do the stakes feel real. The presence of the Moogai itself is reasonably minimal - and when it is, it's definitely there, in full sight. Perhaps playing more with light and shadows as tricks of the mind would have been a better build-up to what was (or wasn't) there to begin with.
The feature is based on Bell's 14-minute short film of the same name, available to stream now on SBS On Demand. The short won the Grand Jury Prize for Midnight Shorts at SXSW Austin. Compared to the feature, it does a great job of balancing the paranoia of a new mother and an Aboriginal woman suffering from intergenerational trauma with a tangible yet almost entirely unseen horror element. With the same key cast and a shorter run time, it's easy to see the quintessence of the story was there - but maybe it simply didn't have the durability for an 86-minute film.
'The Moogai' is ambitious for a horror film. To succeed in this genre, particularly within the key market of the United States, a movie typically requires a substantial degree of thrills or gore. With its heavy historical backstory, this might not be the outright horror audiences will be anticipating for its Halloween release in Australia. While the potential is there its execution is somewhat lacking, and while it's far from lacklustre, the final product doesn't fully execute on its horror promise. Regardless, it's both an intelligent and impressive piece of Indigenous filmmaking that's a step towards mass appeal for what's too long been considered "important" storytelling.