Coffin Rock Review

Just as Wolf Creek showed us the horrific underbelly of the backpacker trail, Coffin Rock, from the producers of Wolf Creek, gives us the darker side of Knocked Up.

Set, like Wolf Creek, in Australia, Rupert Glasson's directorial debut swaps the older film's Outback setting for the small town of Coffin Rock. Sinister by name but not by nature, this coastal slice of hicksville isn't the inbred hot-spot for evil that genre convention would have it be - here, it's the young traveller from the outside world that provides the threat, and there is, praise be to the gods of filmmaking, nary a cliched sinister redneck to be seen.

A memorably creepy performance from young newcomer Sam Parsonson and a sympathetic turn from Lisa Chappell lend some weight to the slight but frequently moving premise. Jess and Rob are a couple who would be happily married, except that they've been trying for over a year to conceive and it ain't happening. He's become touchy in the extreme, unable to countenance the idea that a properly manly Aussie fella like himself might be packing dud people-paste. He's teased by his fellows, whose overly familiar ribaldry pricks a sore spot. This precarious situation - grumpy hubby, wife at wit's end - is observed by rootless young Irish drifter Evan, who spots an opportunity to ingratiate himself with Jess.