AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL: Office Space meets Saw in Daniel Krige’s Redd Inc., a grimy, gruesome exercise in Australian workplace gothic. The punny title gives some indication of the black humour that ultimately emerges from Jonathon Green’s and Anthony O'Connor’s script, but a challenging first half and an awkward structure overall may prove too much for some. Krige and his writers manage to wrap up the film on a relative high, suggesting that the first two acts’ deliberate pacing and style are justified, though the film ultimately demands a lot more of viewers than it is entitled to.
Krige hints at what’s to come with a bloody reveal that dispenses with a stereotypically bitchy 'PR type’ as she struts through the office cubicles, and serves to introduce us to the two key protagonists: heroine Annabelle Hale (Kelly Paterniti) and psychopath Thomas Redmann (Nicholas Hope).
Before long, Annabelle is abducted from her apartment (where she performs an after-hours gig as a topless dancer for web-pervs, which makes for some gratuitous titillation). She awakes to find herself chained to a long desk in a dimly-lit room with fellow prisoners. It’s slowly revealed, via some unconvincing interaction, that each captive has played a key role in Redman’s prior murder conviction. What first appears to be a simple revenge plot soon takes on a unique spin: 'Redd’ is torturing the people that put him away so they can help him catch the real killer.
The 'workplace’ setting offers plenty of opportunity for mordant humour (enlivened by bleak but effective contributions from Claire Granville’s set design and Richard Bradshaw’s cinematography) and a few obvious laughs ('Are we really gonna kill this guy with stationery?"), yet some are more carefully constructed, including a series of squirming 'performance interviews’ that threaten to derail, horribly.
Hope, re-employing the manic grin and shadowy glare of his iconic film character in Bad Boy Buddy, is terrifically over-the-top as the regional manager who carves reminders of his 'five-strike’ policy into the foreheads of his minions. Most other acting is okay; Paterniti grows into her role as the film progresses and Hayley McElhinney (as psychic Sheena) and Alan Dukes (as cop Ed Crandell) stand out, though it’s bewildering as to why each character employs different international accents.
The killer’s identity is not particularly surprising, nor does the recounting of events that led to Reddman’s being framed (and his subsequent psychosis) ring convincingly true. But a final reel that adopts more conventional slasher film tropes and a very cool last scene will leave genre buffs buzzing, as will the appearance of make-up legend Tom Savini, who lent his A-list gore effects (Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead) and charismatic bit-part acting to Krige’s off-kilter vision.
