with apologies to Frederick McCubbin
SCREENPLAY:
RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW
written by BOB BAGARIC & ROBERT BRUINEWOUD
GENRE: adventure/horror
LOGLINE:
In 1933 Australia, a reclusive WW1 veteran reluctantly joins a widowed grazier and a makeshift group of hunters to eradicate those guilty of slaughtering their livestock. Only to be hunted by the monstrous hominids responsible.
INTRODUCING RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW:
Red in Tooth and Claw is a terrifying new addition to the Bigfeet genre. A dark adventure set during the Great Depression in the shadows of Australia’s Great Dividing Range, we meet Boyd, a reclusive war veteran, trudging the roads of rural Australia in search of work. Here he meets a widowed grazier, Amy Keenan and, desperate for a meal, accepts a short-term job on her sheep station. This is despite the painful memories of his dead wife which she stirs in him.
However, an accident leads to Boyd’s stay on the farm being extended. Soon after this, a flock of Amy’s sheep are discovered, dead and violently mutilated. While still feeling uncomfortable around Amy, he again delays his departure to help bury the dead sheep. Only to find himself delaying his departure a second time, when Amy decides to join her duplicitous neighbour, Gaites, and his makeshift hunting party on the trail of the sheep killers.
The combined groups offer an array of distinctive characters through which to explore themes around our place in society, the diffculties of coping with dramatic change, and how we deal with profound loss.
Over the next two days the group picks their way through dense bushland, while making a series of strange discoveries that slowly reveal aspects of their mysterious quarry. This is despite Gaites using his wealth and power to repeatedly hinder them from interrogating what it is they have found, while also trying to downplay the gravity of their situation.
So it is mere hours before the attack when Boyd and Amy finally force Gaites to admit to what he’s known all along. But by then it’s too late. Trapped, deep in the forest, their only course of action is to wait out the night by the safety of the campfire and leave at first light. However Gaites’ breach of trust has undermined what little cohesion the two groups had, and so when the attack comes they are completely unprepared.
The brutality of the Yowies (Australia’s Bigfeet) will shock audiences. These are not simple animals hunting to eat and survive. Grinning in anticipation, they appear to relish the fear, pain and death they inflict.
Weeks later, they are all back on the farm recovering from their ordeal, with Boyd now happy to be part of Amy and Nicki’s lives.
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Sharing aspects with movies such as: Prey (2022), The Revenant (2015), The Grey (2011) and The Ghost & the Darkness (1996) — Red in Tooth and Claw will take audiences on a dread-filled journey into a forbidding, yet beautiful world. A journey from which only a few will return.
NOTE: For a cheaper, contemporary Yowie movie, see Hairy Man Creek.
Red in Tooth and Claw is available to read at:
• Script Revolution or
• you can contact me via the contact form.