Rent Animals (2008)

Good, but a shame about the CGI - spoilers. - Animals review by NP

“Bite me,” instructs Nora (Nicki Aycox), and floundering decent guy Jarrett (Marc Blucas) isn’t sure he wants to. But Nora’s highly charged, insatiable sexuality doesn’t seem to accept uncertainties. These two performers are excellent in what is little more than a series of passionate sexual encounters and gore. Her ‘other beau’ Vic (Naveen Andrews) also shares her feral instincts and is clearly not someone with whom you would wish to ‘mess.’

Stylistically, this reminded me of a kind of cross between the slinky sexiness of ‘Underworld (2003)’ and the trailer-park atmospherics of ‘Near Dark (1987)’. Not a bad pedigree, and Director Douglas Aarniokoski ensures that visually things are interesting even if the story is somewhat thin – and strangely, gets thinner as events take their course. With a lessening of the sex, we are bombarded with more CGI effects the limited budget cannot sustain. This is a shame – with a more physical manifestation of the finale, it would have been more successful. CGI, unless expertly (and expensively) handled, robs a scene of atmosphere and reduces it to cartoon theatrics, and that is what happens here unfortunately. As such, it lessens the otherwise successful interpretation of John Skipp’s original story.