The Drive-In Ronin - Rippy

Disillusioned with the #MutantFam yet pledged to the Drive-In Oath, one man walks the Earth in search of the Three B’s (Blood, Breasts & Beasts) and the fabled Kung Fu City. His guiding mantra: The Drive-In is everywhere…you just need to look for it.

These are his journeys.

He is…The Drive-In Ronin.

There’s a trope in every slasher film: the crazy old guy that warns “You’re all doooooomed!” The most notable of these, of course, is Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th. But let me tell you something, when you’ve recruited goddamn Michael Biehn as your crazed harbinger of doom? You’re doing something right.

Something is killing the people of Axehead in the Australian Outback. As each new body is found, Regional Police Officer Maddy becomes more and more overwhelmed. Once the killings persist after a suspect is jailed, then she’s forced to confront the warnings of an old Vietnam veteran American ex-pat, crazy as they may sound. Is there really a 7-foot tall, crazed kangaroo killing anything in its path? A night of terror and a bloody odyssey throughout the Outback might reveal the answers, as well as resurrect some ghosts from Maddy’s past.

I feel like we don’t talk about Aussie film enough. Sure, we all know and bend the knee to George Miller and his Mad Max saga…but beyond that, how many films do most people know from that corner of the world? We’ve looked at a couple here, Wyrmwood & Deathgasm, and they show up on Shudder’s The Last Drive-In from time to time, such as Next of Kin (1982), The Babadook and Housebound. And if you lump them in with their cousins in New Zealand, with offerings such as What We Do In the Shadows and another one of my favorites that we’ve yet to take a look at here, Black Sheep (definitely NOT the Chris Farley one!)…in addition to Peter Jackson’s early work…and, well, you’ve got yourself a REALLY interesting body of work coming from the lands Down Under.

Rippy is no exception.

Now, let’s be clear right up front: even though the premise, that of a mutated undead kangaroo terrorizing a small town in the Outback, sounds utterly ridiculous, perhaps the best thing about Rippy is that it totally plays it straight. Not a slasher, per se, as I alluded to in the opening, but very definitely a ‘Nature takes her revenge’ style story that is also a staple of the horror diet. The taut atmosphere that director Ryan Coonan and his co-writer Richard Barcaricchio create remains intact throughout the movie as people are picked off one-by-one, not necessarily in more gruesome ways but definitely in ways that gave the special makeup effects folks something to do. That said, it is worth noting that while said effects wizards don’t necessarily bring anything new to the table, their work here is solid enough to appease most gore hounds.

It is worth commenting that the performances here are solid, with each character being believable and sewn with enough pathos to keep the audience pulling for them, even when they seem irredeemable at times. While the writing feels like it rushes character development a bit…partially because the script doesn’t really do anything new aside from our antagonist, but also because the movie runs at a brisk clip at 83 minutes…the acting helps sell us on what would otherwise be an incomplete picture of most of the characters.

In the middle ground, I do appreciate the family drama that emerges during the span of the film, as they myth Maddy has built around her long-departed dad starts to fray at the edges, coming completely undone by the end of the film…kinda as you’d expect the instant this element is introduced. I can’t help but wonder, however, if the origin of Rippy himself, spoken of briefly in dialog before being relegated to end credits animation, might have made better use of that time within the body of the movie. Again, the film’s writing dips its toes into trope territory with a quick explanation of chemicals coming from the mine running off into a local river…or watering hole…or…creek maybe? It’s hard to tell. But as I’m writing this (I was okay with it during the run of the film), I can’t help but wonder, why the ‘roo? Why not the other Outback creatures that would’ve wet their collective whistles at this same place? In the closing animation, we see crows picking at the not-quite resurrected Rippy’s body…but not a single zombie-bird throughout the picture. Again, this might not bother you during the film itself…but give it time and it’ll start nibbling at the sides of your brain.

On that note, I do have to raise one last word of praise…but I can’t tell you what it is without risking spoilers, so I’ll simply say this: a lot of times horror movies are made or broken by their closing stinger…that promise of a sequel, that not all has been resolved. What the filmmakers leave us with is something we should have totally expected but does indeed sink the hook in for a sequel. Or…maybe this is a prequel to Wyrmwood? Who can say? The one negative that does end up emerging from this is that the movie would have been a lot better if this sequel setup had instead been interwoven throughout the film. I can certainly see why it might have been omitted for pacing reasons though. The trick with a horror film, especially those of a low budget, is not to overstay your welcome. While there isn’t a rock-solid hard wall at 90 minutes, you better be at the top of your game if you want to make a push beyond that.

There’s one negative that needs to be mentioned though: the CGI ‘roo. While the filmmakers were smart to keep Rippy’s appearances at night, well, that only helps so much. He’s very clearly CG in nearly every instance we see him. I get that the budget probably didn’t allow for circumstances where some shots could be practical and some CG, but that kind of change up would have helped and sadly, isn’t here. That’s not to say there aren’t shots of a practical Rippy, but they’re extremely few…the only one springing to my mind right now being the very end when Rippy is finally killed. Again, I get it…but boy does it feel like a huge missed opportunity for the film’s practical effects crew to impress us.

When I sat down to write this, I had in my mind a mostly positive review but as my brain continues to digest the film, I look back at what I’ve written and it seems like for every positive, I have a negative…like I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth. Ultimately, giving the most weight to the experience of the film itself, I do come down on the positive side, with a leaning toward a Happy Cat rating…with some caveats. I recommend Rippy, and you’re gonna want to turn your brain off beforehand. It’s a straight up Creature Feature, and the good and the bad that comes with it. Solid acting helps you to care about the characters, even when the script doesn’t necessarily pull its half of the weight. Plus…spoiler warning…the dog lives…so it’s not all bad! Definitely worth a stream if you can find it for free or at a fairly low price.