Feb 19, 2020
Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another Indie Wednesday review. Before we get started with today’s review, I want to shout out Yolandi Franken for passing along today’s film for consideration. She was also instrumental in passing along last year’s TABERNACLE 101 (Episode #619) and helping to line up an interview with writer/director and microbudget instructor Colm O’Murchu. She’s quickly becoming my gateway into low-budget Australian cinema, especially after connecting me with writer/director Igor Breakenback for today’s review. Thanks, Yolandi!
We’ll have a bit of a format switch for today’s episode. Rather than interspersing trailer segments, I’ll be running the full trailer audio up front. Throughout the review, I’ll instead be adding segments from my interview with Igor Breakenback. Be sure to catch the whole interview this coming Sunday on our Patreon page at patreon.com/onemoviepunch, where you can also sign up to be a contributor at any level. The interview will be publicly available for a limited time before heading behind the pay wall.
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Here we go!
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<< TURBINES PROMO >>
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Today’s movie is TURBINES(2019), the psychological thriller written and directed by Igor Breakenback and Shane Borza. The film follows Attila (Igor Breakenback) and his new wife Jana (Bianca Bradey), after moving to rural Australia to work near a wind farm as part of a government program, complete with stress and anxiety for their new child. After five years, however, something snaps, and people begin dying throughout the region.
No spoilers.
Low-budget films tend to center around a number of specific genres, usually exploiting tantalizing content as a means of distracting the viewer from the rougher parts of the production process. That’s why if you cruise the endless digital shelves of Amazon Prime, or the growing shelves of low-budget cinema at services like Tubi, you’ll see an overwhelming avalanche of horror films, and a modest showing of comedies and thrillers full of softcore sexual content. The advances in special effects over the last few years have added all sorts of science fiction and action films as well, for better or worse. Usually, shocking scenes with a lot of filler content with all the dialogue composition of classic pornographic films.
The reason, of course, is money. Unless you are working on a passion project, most filmmakers are looking for a return on their investment, or at least to cover the production costs, either at the box office, or through distribution deals. Until about five years ago, renting a camera team to shoot a film was a very expensive proposition, and purchasing high quality cameras even more expensive. And until about ten years ago, editing and splicing film together was even more difficult before the major shift to digital processing. But now that costs are coming down, that means more filmmakers are trying their hand using much cheaper, higher quality technology. And they are also trying to move beyond the old formats that sell.
IGOR: “I think the tricky part today is that trying to make a film that doesn’t instantly give you those quick cuts in the action and try to keep you on the edge of your seat, is very well overlooked by today’s audience, because they are so used to quick cuts. They are so used to the stories constantly changing. A lot of them won’t sit, necessarily, through a slow burning type of film, that kind of builds the story over a certain period of time. But I was really interested in that, because it is really is a slice of life, and that’s kind of how life happens. Trying to give film a very realistic output, I think it’s very tricky today, and doesn’t appeal to everybody.”
TURBINES is a film told in two parts. The first act really takes its time to establish the characters of Attila and Yana, along with Attila’s work supervisor, and the community they live within. If you’re expecting the killing to begin right away, you are definitely going to be disappointed, despite a flash forward cold open. All this introduction is peppered with a few classic scenes of foreshadowing, particularly the perceived effect of the wind turbines, along with the stress and exhaustion of a newborn, creating a sense of madness within Attila. It’s a decent setup for the second half, but it’s not going to appeal to all thriller fans, and Igor found that out in the reviews.
IGOR: “We either have people who love it, or people that hate it. The people that love it, they enjoyed that part. They enjoyed the slow build before suddenly this film turns. And the people that hated it, that’s exactly the part that they hate. They thinking it’s a little too slow in the beginning, and not to wait until the very end to see how the film changes and gets into those darker parts. For me, it was important to work the drama side of things, and I said I always wanted to have a balance in our filmmaking, especially for me from an acting point of view, I always like to have a balance, where the drama doesn’t overtake the action, or vice versa. It’s tricky to try and balance that in the script, and then obviously in the acting and the action part, and then in the delivery of the final product of the film. But I think the challenge is what makes it so interesting.”
The second act begins after a five-year jump in the narrative, which allows us not only to imagine the long-term effects on Attila of working near the wind farm, but also allows time for his son to grow up. Folks begin to steadily die, and we’re not really sure what Attila’s full part is in it, at least at first. This second half is like a slasher film on fast forward, as more and more people die, all the way until we loop back around to the opening scene. We also get to see something I like to call the Hammer Cam, which is like a Go Pro attached to the business end of the hammer.
IGOR: “With TURBINES, it was the same. The question was... I mean, horror has been done. Psychological thrillers have been done. How can we do something once people see, they’ll say, ‘Okay, I’ll remember that. If I don’t remember anything else, I’ll remember that.’ And killing someone on screen is an art. Regardless if it’s a horror film or an action film. And then going back to smaller budgets, how can I do something that’s practical effects. Because today, when somebody gets hit, it’s a lot of CGI, there’s a lot of special effects, there’s a lot of camera work involved. The question was how can I do something that’s going to be memorable, but done in a way where it’s still a practical gag and looks real. So, we’re not using... that actor is behind the hammer. Yes, we’re using a little bit of makeup, but that’s about it. And then the question was, how can we cut it in a way that even if it’s just a few seconds, it will stick with you.”
It’s really roughly done, given the budget, but it does make you stop and take notice, very similar to the way the unique camera work in 2018’s UPGRADE (Episode #155) elevated that horror thriller to something else. A hammer hit is vicious enough, but seeing it from the business end is something else entirely. In fact, despite the slow opening, the back end is packed with excellent, wince-inducing action, much more in Igor’s comfort zone of stunt work and fight choreography, which makes up for the somewhat weaker first half. That’s probably my biggest criticism of TURBINES – how uneven the film ends up playing between the first and second half. The film definitely has a balance between the drama and horror, but it doesn’t blend the two very well together in terms of keeping a consistent feel to the film. The easy way out would have been to make it a straight-ahead slasher thriller, but despite this uneven feel, I still appreciate Breakenback going for the full dramatic experience over something way more derivative.
TURBINES also suffers from its production cost and the amount of time it took to deliver the film. Overall, Igor ended up spending around $200,000 over seven years time to finish up the film, doing the initial photography in about three weeks time over two months, while in the midst of other projects. Igor is a very busy guy, not only making his own films, but working on other films, as an actor and a stuntman, running an MMA gym to train combat athletes, and is even a partner in Sydney’s first cat café. But it wasn’t any of that that kept him away from getting TURBINES done quickly. TURBINES would languish for years while Igor worked on a more important project.
IGOR: “The reason was that I had kids, so I had my first born. What happened then, the first few years I just couldn’t get down to finish the film. And whoever has had kids, they would know. And since my wife and I live on our own here in Sydney. We didn’t have family here, so we had nobody to help us out, so we always had to be with our first born. And then later, I had my second born, and then so I had two kids, and then postponed it basically again. So, just before my second one turns two years, I just felt like I was in a spot where I can now take six months again off.”
I remember well myself having to put down my own projects when my daughter was born, having to make hard choices about the time I had for the time she required. Losing momentum is tough in the independent film world, not just because of time, but because everything costs more to put away and start back up. Igor’s team would do some pickups, even incorporating his first born into the film, but it takes a longer time than you think, especially when someone else is tugging at your pant leg. Here’s another choice I fully agree with that Igor made.
TURBINES is a psychological thriller divided into two distinct halves: an initial dramatic act, followed by a much faster final act. While the premise may seem like just another low-budget slasher, the execution is something more, even while hamstrung by its production budget. Low-budget fans, especially low-budget thriller fans, and anyone interested in the Hammer Cam, should definitely check out this film, but expect a slow burn at the beginning.
Rotten Tomatoes: NR
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 5.2/10
TURBINES (2019) is not rated and is currently available on VOD. Please consider renting or purchasing the film to support independent cinema. But if you do stream it, consider giving back at breakenback.com using their donation button.