The Furies is a 2019 horror film that’s part slasher, part survival thriller. And if you think those two descriptions are too closely related then you obviously don’t understand our attempt to avoid spoilers. It’s good to go in blind even though you’ve seen this type of story a million times before. However it’s not the premise that makes The Furies good it’s the acting and abundance of practical gore effects that make this special.
Perhaps distracted by the impending doom of 2019, The Furies didn’t get a modicum of promotion before its release. COVID isn’t all to blame, the movie was labeled as a Shudder Original before the streamer became as popular as it is today. It premiered on the platform in October of that year. What’s more, Australia is its country of origin and usually that carries some clout but not enough to entice potential subscribers. The Furies never had a chance. Some of you have probably heard of it but never watched, those who have watched are probably glad they did.
It’s funny because just a few months later a movie with a similar premise The Hunt was released to abandoned theaters across the country but still managed to make over $12 million. As a side note, seeing that the pandemic had restricted moviegoers to their couches, Universal made The Hunt a digital rental just a week later.
Now back to The Furies. We recently revisited this underrated and under watched film and have determined it to be a horror classic. That’s right, a classic. Those Aussies know how to do horror and this film should join the ranks of Wolf Creek, Killing Ground and Wyrmwood.
Writer/director Tony D’Aquino leaves little time for character development as we fade into the film and we see a young lady being stalked by a hulking shape in a horrific mask. But wait, all is not as straightforward as it seems. Another man in an equally disturbing mask appears, apparently trying to save our hapless female victim. A lot of bloodshed later and a fade-out we are introduced to Kayla, played by Airlie Dodds, an epileptic who is joined by her friend Maddie (Ebony Vagulans). They are kidnapped, Kayla is put into a black box and placed in the middle of the wilderness.
D’Aquino is hoping you don’t figure out the twist even though the viewer has about three in mind, and the first one is probably it. That doesn’t matter. There are so many great practical effects to keep you distracted you’re not concerned about silly endings. In fact the weakest part of The Furies is its ending. We’ll get to that later.
The point here is that men are hunting women, which back in 2019 was a direct metaphor; a political statement that started in 2017 with the hashtag “Me Too.” There’s no way D’Aquino didn’t make that comparison. Even in the beginning of the film Maddie vandalizes a brick wall with the words “Fuck Patriarchy.”
Dodds is hands-down the powerhouse of this movie. She isn’t playing a trope-ish final girl who trips while running away from her pursuer. No, she gets her Ripley on and faces down her monsters with over-charged girl energy. That is until her epilepsy sends her into seizures; the only time she’s vulnerable and down for the count.
She joins other women trying to survive these masked hunters while figuring out what the hell is going on and simultaneously looking for her friend Maddie.
The Furies is really a feature-length Black Mirror episode. It keeps a steady slasher pace with lots of violent pit stops along the way. The practical gore is over-the-top and the creative kills are some of the best we’ve seen since the Wrong Turn franchise or The Hills Have Eyes remakes. It’s got that early 2000s horror movie kill factor where axes and other sharp objects are used to dispatch people close-up and as a horror fan that’s part of the experience, appreciating SFX teams and their avoidance of heavy CGI.
However, as stated before the only problem with The Furies is its ending. As intelligent people we understand the premise once it’s revealed. But what makes it frustrating is that the filmmakers made it more convoluted than it should be. We get our “atta girl!” moment, but it’s attached to an incoherent finale where nothing makes sense. It’s as if the scriptwriter was trying to answer questions about logistics when allowing us to use Occam’s Razor would have sufficed.
If you missed The Furies for whatever reason, and you’re a horror fan (or even a sci-fi one), seek it out or put it on your watchlist. It’s a unique slasher where the acting is above par, the gore is outstanding, and it packs a lot in for its short runtime. Let’s not forget the excellent soundtrack.
Want to find out where it’s streaming? Click HERE.