Rent Blame (2010)

Blame review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

After the death of a fellow student five friends invade the home of their music teacher intent on taking revenge. The group, played largely by unknowns from inside Australia – and not a single recognisable face for an outsider – is made up of three boys, Nick (Simon Stone), John (Mark Leonard Winter) and Anthony (Ashley Zuckerman) and two girls, Natalie (Sophie Lowe) and sister to the dead girl Cate (Kestie Morassi) who, immediately after Alice’s funeral venture out to the secluded bush home of music teacher Bernard (Damien de Montemas) in order to confront him for causing Alice to commit suicide. Their spur of the moment revenge attempt goes wrong when Bernard manages to survive and one of the five realise they’ve left the mobile phone behind. It’s only then do the friends discover that perhaps the reason for Alice’s death might not be so clear cut after all.

The story is really that straight forward and I’m sure you can imagine where things go from here, but in spite of that new comer director Michael Henry makes sure you enjoy the ride toward the predictable ending.

There comes a point when you’ve seen enough thrillers to know what the twist is and when it’s going to come, the sign of a good director is one who can hold your attention and keep up the tension regardless of this fact, and Henry does that with a little help from cinematographer Torstien Dryting and a score by Tamil Rogoen. I must admit there was a bit of a dip in the middle where I found myself beginning to tap my feet and drum my fingers, but the line between creating suspense and dragging things out is a very fine one and it takes a real master not to trip over it occasionally.

Overall Blame was a simple yet satisfying movie, it lacks the depth and genuine intrigue of many of its more adult counterparts but for a mildly adolescent drama-thriller it’s certainly worth watching out for.