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Review

Better take notes because director Mark Hartley's quick moving, vastly entertaining ode to trash whips through a colorful history of films you've most likely never seen but will be salivating to see more of. Most of these films were gonzo filmmaking at its best with actors being shot at with real bullets, stuntmen lighting themselves on fire and horror movies with topless women and little children being shred to pieces. From a killer boar in Razorback to violent martial art films like Man from Hong Kong and the trashy telepathic horror of Patrick, which even inspired a Dario Argento styled Italian remake, no subject was sacred and the dirtier, grittier and more outrageous the stories, the quicker these films were unleashed to the Australian audiences. With a glorious mix of archival trailers, sharply funny observations of the business and enthusiastic interviews with Australian luminaries like Russell Mulcahy, imported American talent like Jamie Lee Curtis and even Quentin Tarantino, you'll see why this documentary became a genre film lovers' wet dream at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and Austin's Fantastic Festival.

 -- Lewis Tice