Going under the much-more-easily-searchable title of LEMON TREE PASSAGE in other territories, and also screening under that title at Frightfest a couple of years ago, David Campbell’s Australian ghost story hits UK DVD courtesy of Metrodrome.
A quartet of American teenagers travelling through Australia meet up with a couple of local kids on a beach. One of them, Oscar, tells them the campfire story of Lemon Tree Passage, which is allegedly haunted by the ghost of a careful motorcyclist knocked off his bike by a car full of teenagers and which now appears under similar circumstances. Oscar convinces the teens to drive fast down the road and sure enough a strange light appears. That’s not enough for them, though, and Oscar decides to stand in the road to confront the apparition when they once again speed down the road.
Oscar disappears, later turning up dead in the boot of the car, which stops working. The kids find themselves trapped in the forest and at the mercy of something which has nothing to do with the story they have been told, even though it seems to be of similar supernatural origin.
THE PASSAGE is a bit of a mess. It wants to be a ghost movie that second-guesses you but what should actually be a straightforward piece of storytelling ends up muddled and confused such that it becomes rather difficult to follow. I don’t want to give too much away in case you want to see it for yourselves, but by the end I could appreciate that this was some sort of rape revenge movie, but I still had no idea if one or either of two important characters had anything to do with it or not.
Apart from that THE PASSAGE is reasonably well made and the performances aren’t bad. The disc provided was a screener so I can’t comment on if there were any extras.
THE PASSAGE is out on Region 2 DVD from Metrodome on
5th October 2015
5th October 2015
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