Great acting and full of tension.. though some of it might be too much for some. But the ending was the only thing that bothered me. What happened to Ollie??

KILLING GROUND is another nasty, realistic, grubby little horror film from Australia in which the horror comes from man rather than a mythical creation. I don't know, after watching the likes of the WOLF CREEK films, this, and SNOWTOWN, you'd never want to visit the country! The story is about a couple of hikers who stumble upon a crime scene and are soon pursued by some very unpleasant characters. It's an obviously low budget story that suffers a little from some confused narrative touches (the mingling of past and present storylines early on is a bad choice) but generally works in a small-scale way. There's enough suspense to see it through, as well as some shocking and hard-hitting violence. The story gets more entertaining as it goes on and it all becomes tension-packed towards the climax. It's hardly a great film, but I'd say that it achieves what it sets out to do.

A young couple go camping in the Australian bush, on arrival they notice a tent nearby with no occupants, as time goes by no one returns to this tent and the young couple become increasingly concerned.

This Australian thriller is one which shows the influence of the outback shocker Wolf Creek (2005). It plays off the fears of urban people out of their environment and at the mercy of sadistic country folks, in this case a couple of psychopaths. While it is certainly a hard-hitting movie, it isn't as visceral as Wolf Creek and its intensity often is more psychological in approach. Don't get me wrong, it has some very disturbing scenes but the focus of the horror often is more on the fear of what could happen rather than revelling on the actual details. Whatever the case, this is an impressively tense film, helped quite a bit by the approach which goes for a feeling of realism within the situation. The performances are all good and the character actions more authentic than we usually get, with one character acting quite cowardly in a manner in which you tend not to see in the movies but which undoubtedly would be a lot truer to life for many people in such situations. This general focus on realism helps ground events and only serves to up the overall suspense. The non-linear strands that are used to initially set-up the scene were also very effective and accentuate the sense of impending dread. I would have to classify this Australian effort as one of the strongest films of its kind of recent times, it's very well made and thought out, while still delivering the goods from a horror/thriller perspective.