Written by Steven Vagg
Ahead of the BIFF premiere of The Red, a new Australian film about a giant zombie kangaroo with a penchant for flesh, director Steven Vagg thought it was time to rethink the killer kangaroo genre. (Spoiler: It’s not that big)
Australia is blessed with unique animals, the most iconic of which is the kangaroo. Yes, koalas probably have a higher Q rating, and no one hates platypus or finds words like “Tasmanian tiger” depressing. But it’s hard to get past blue-chip company and undisputed ‘Australia’s number one animal’, ‘roo’. Marsupials appear everywhere: in trademarks, coats of arms, coins, and sports team names. It has also been used in the titles of many films that have nothing to do with kangaroos, such as The Kangaroo Kid (1950), The Kangaroo (1952), and The Kangaroo (1987).
Most of the kangaroos portrayed on screen resonate. Leading the way, of course, is Skippy, Australia’s first blockbuster television series, which was spun off into the shockingly unsuccessful feature film The Intruders (1969).
More than 30 years earlier, Orphan of the Wilderness (1936) featured Chut, an orphaned kangaroo who was brought back to life as a tent boxer. This is one of Ken G. Hall’s best films, a kind of Call of the Wild with Roo in place of the dog, but the film was banned in the UK due to gory scenes. The Americans had no problem with kangaroo boxing. Kangaroos have appeared in films such as Below Hell (1933), The Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), and Matilda (1978).
The animation is very kangaroo-like. “Dot and the Kangaroo” series, “Kiko the Kangaroo” series, “Hippetti Hopper” series, “Blinky Bill” series (Splodge), “Winnie the Pooh” series (Kanga and Roo), and ” Series like “Rocco’s Modern Life” have a looseness that you can relate to. , Kangaroo Beach, Radio Lou, Koala Brothers, Kangaroo Creek Gang. Live-action is also generally kinder to Lou. Kangaroo Jack (2003) and Kate Woods’ new Kangaroo (2025).
In the world of film, killing a kangaroo has traditionally been portrayed as a very bad thing. The completely accurate (and superbly filmed) depiction of a kangaroo shooting in The Awakening of Terror (1970) is usually met with gasps of horror. The villain of Crocodile Dundee (1986) is Loo Shooter. If you think about it, the same goes for the villains in Fair Game (1985), Razorback (1984), and Orphan of the Wild.
What movies feature scary kangaroos? Not that many. There was Welcome to Woop Woop (1996), originally called “Big Red” after the giant scary kangaroo that appears at the film’s climax. But even the film’s villains are less kangaroos than Rod Taylor and Susie Porter. Perhaps the most ferocious kangaroo ever to appear on screen was “Sour Kangaroo” in Horton Hears a Who (2008).
When Australia wants to make a killer creature movie, it traditionally chooses crocodiles (Rogue, Blackwater, Dark Ages), sharks (Bait, The Reef) and pigs (Razorback). , and above all bogans (too many to mention). Snakes, spiders, and jellyfish are deadly to humans, but they don’t get much attention on screen because they’re not very cinematic (an exception is Everett de Roche’s 1978 masterpiece The Long Weekend, where all ).
Kangaroos are very cinematic animals, but until The Red they had never been a full-fledged villain in a movie.
The strange thing is that kangaroos are not that popular with Australians. They do not make good pets, cause endless nuisance on farms, are not very friendly and will jump in front of people on the road causing accidents. They can even kill you. Australians generally don’t seem too concerned that so many animals are being culled. Americans do. This is detailed in the 2018 documentary Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story.
The Red Army stands up to history. They should make more zombie kangaroo movies. Can a century of pro-law propaganda be defeated? Let’s take a look.
The Red will have its world premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival on October 25, 2024. Please see here.
