Watch Out of the Body For Free

Absolutely Brilliant!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

When David Gaze (Mark Hembrow) falls asleep his spirit leaves his body to go on astral jaunts around town during which he witnesses a series of murders.Australian B-movie/exploitation director Brian Trenchard-Smith might not be a true cinematic auteur, but I've never been disappointed by his work as far as pure entertainment goes. Out of the Body is admittedly a very silly effort, and one that careens wildly out of control in its final act, but it certainly isn't boring, and as far as I am concerned that is more than half the battle won.With numerous supernatural murders, a sex scene that turns into a nightmare, the brutal slaying of an innocent pet cat, a possessed car, and an outrageously over-the-top performance from its star, quite how anyone can feel short-changed by this film is completely beyond my comprehension. Trenchard's direction isn't without style either, the out of body sequences making great use of strong coloured lighting and smooth POV camera-work.In fact, the film is worth a watch just to witness Gaze waking from one of his nightmarish astral journeys to find himself throttling the cat—it's absolutely hilarious!

An invisible force is killing prominent women in Sydney, leaving them sans their eyes. David is a twitchy musician who has visions of the victims whenever he's asleep, usually right before they're attacked. Wondering why he's seeing this, David attempts to warn several women of the danger as well as find out who or what is behind the killings.From cult director Brian Trenchard-Smith, this film is a complete and utter blast. The story isn't always the most coherent, but the film is fun from beginning to end. The lead is quite the dope too, never missing an opportunity to make himself look like the #1 suspect. He even gets involved in some bedtime cat fu. Anyway, the first kill scene is pretty out there, and I liked the use of lighting at the TV reporter's house... reminiscent of Argento's Inferno.I wouldn't say this is a good film, but as far as entertainment goes, it delivers in spades.

You know, I didn't get paid for sitting through this garbage, so there must be something wrong with me; what kind of a masochist would watch a film like "Out of the Body" for free? A man "has visions of murders". The cops "don't believe him" and "think he committed the murders". He is "possessed by an evil spirit". A tired, senseless script, combined with the strangely amateurish work of an experienced horror director (Brian Trenchard-Smith) and a completely unengaging lead, produce a pathetic time-waster. Not to mention the heavy Australian accents or the poor audio, which make much of the dialogue hard to understand. (*)

This film is easily some of BMX Bandits star John Ley's best work. His part as the detective trying to catch the astral travelling killer is played with the skill of an acting genius. The plot is thin, to say the least, but you can't go past a low quality Australian movie like this. The slender plot is sure to provide a few laughs (it's not supposed to be a comedy!), as are those ridiculous black eyes...