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The Spinoff
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Everyone needs to see The Weed Eaters
A new comedy horror with a $19,000 budget may be the best local release in years, writes Madeleine Chapman. I really didn't want to see The Weed Eaters. As a 'miniscule-budget stoner horror', it falls into none of my preferred genres of film. I'm terrified of horrors (can barely watch a thriller) and the only stoner movie I've loved is Friday (1995). So I saw the blurb for The Weed Eaters and thought good on you but not for me. The night before its NZIFF premiere, I drank 2x beers and had my arm twisted into seeing it ('just close your eyes if you're scared'). I have never been so thankful for peer pressure because watching The Weed Eaters with hundreds of other film fans at The Civic was the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time, and The Weed Eaters has cemented itself as my favourite local film in recent memory. First, the premise: four friends (loose term) go on a New Year's trip to a shed in rural North Canterbury and find some ancient weed. The weed turns them into cannibals. That premise would fit right at home in a 48Hrs Film Festival short, and Sports Team (Callum Devlin and Annabel Kean) are mainstayers of the short film festivals with this being their debut feature alongside collaborators Finnius Teppett, Alice May Connolly and Samuel Austin. All but Devlin act in the film, and between the five of them they cover credits from director (Devlin), cinematographer (Austin), screenplay (Teppett), costume design (Kean) and producer (all but Austin). It's like if a media studies group project turned professional, and the collective represents a welcome disruption to the local industry. The Weed Eaters is a perfect example of what can be achieved when creative people have a vision and just really, really want to make it so don't wait around for permission (or funding). There is the obvious caveat of the filmmakers acknowledging their parents' support in providing accommodation and filming locations for the movie, but even so, The Weed Eaters releases with a budget a cool million dollars cheaper (at least) than other local features of recent years. It might have a $19,000 budget (or thereabouts, raised through a Boosted crowdfunding campaign) but it doesn't look like a cheap film. In fact, thanks to Sports Team's resume of music videos, every shot in The Weed Eaters looks deliberate, beautiful and clever. There's a lot of effective playing with light, whether the logistically-nightmarish-but-beautiful golden hour scenes, fireside chats or a particularly fun sequence lit entirely with camera flashes. I began the movie on edge (it was a dark scene and ominous so I closed my eyes) but the first indication that we were in safe, capable hands was when the central couple Brian and Jules (Teppett and Connolly) speak for the first time. There was no big joke or dramatic delivery, it just sounded like a real interaction that a couple in their 30s would have. And that, ultimately, is what made The Weed Eaters so enjoyable. Beyond the shock of cannibalism and classic horror gore, The Weed Eaters follows four people who feel like real New Zealanders who could only ever be in New Zealand. Where so often it can be cringe-inducing to watch 'ourselves' on screen, I felt like I was spying on four friends who I knew rather than watching four people act. Connolly and Kean in particular cut right to the core of millennial kiwi (pākehā) women as the new partner entering an established friend group and the caustic longtime friend respectively. The movie is 80 minutes long which is short for a feature. And yet it's the perfect length. There would have surely been scenes and gags that could've been stretched out for a few more beats to hit that 90 minute sweet spot but I'm grateful they resisted it. As someone who hates horrors, I can confidently say that The Weed Eaters is far more comedy than horror, and in fact I only had to close my eyes on three brief occasions. Besides, it is genuinely very funny. And blissfully, once the joke has been delivered, the film knows when to move on. The only stumble in the 80 minutes is, ironically, at the finish line. While not enough to impact my enjoyment of the rest of the movie, the ending felt a little rushed and is the only hint that everything was made quickly and cheaply. Had they stuck an original landing, it would be a near perfect film. Even without, it delivered on its promises. There are obvious parallels to draw between The Weed Eaters and the early films of Peter Jackson – Bad Taste and Braindead in particular. The genre, for one, but also the sense that the filmmakers have made something far better than their circumstances should have allowed. It makes me wonder what they could possibly achieve with even a 'small' budget, but also makes me fear it too, given the very appeal of this film is in the necessarily intimate way it was made. Whatever they do next, I'll be watching and donating to the Boosted campaign. And in the meantime, I'll swallow my fear of horror movies and happily watch The Weed Eaters again when it inevitably becomes a cult classic.
The Spinoff
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
The Weekend: The parks in the Civic car park are too damn small
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. There's something about a film festival that makes me feel more generous to the films I see than I would be if I watched them alone at home. Sometimes it's the audience enthusiasm infecting me, but mostly it's the sense that I have chosen to see a movie I had no idea existed until the week prior and in doing so, am paying more for the experience of seeing a capital-m Movie at the beautiful Civic Theatre. With Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival under way, I have been to the Civic three times in the past week. I enjoyed Prime Minister (full review on Gone by Lunchtime this weekend), really enjoyed Dreams, and positively adored The Weed Eaters (full review coming next week). Even if I didn't love them it would've been worth the ticket to sit in the beautiful venue. I love The Civic, I love the film festival, I love movies. What I hate is the Civic car park. On paper, the Civic car park should be the best car park in the country. It's central but underground (not taking up valuable real estate), it's big (you can almost always find a park) and it's relatively cheap (as an Auckland Transport car park it has a cap of $12.50 for evening and weekend parking). All great things and an asset to the liveliness of the central city being directly beneath multiple venues. All of this, however, is completely and violently undone by the fact that all the parking spaces are too small. Yes, yes, higher-than-first world problem, but I really can't overstate how narrow every painted space is. It is genuinely impossible for two cars to park in neighbouring spots and have room to get out. The number of people who I personally know that have crashed their cars in the Civic car park is more than five. Some of them are not good drivers but still, that's a lot. The car park was built in the 70s when cars were smaller but I struggle to see how there was ever a time when people could comfortably park there. I can only assume that as cars got bigger and bigger, AT refused to repaint its parking lines both out of spite (commendable) and because when the City Rail Link finally opens, there should be slightly less demand for car parking in the city. One could argue we should all be catching the bus to the Civic anyway and sure, I agree. But until then, for the love of god, I need AT to accept our current reality. Remove 30 of the 823 parking spaces in the building, repaint the spaces to be a healthy width, and watch as every movie/theatre/festival-goer's mood exponentially lifts. The Civic car park is the best car park in the country. If only cars could fit in it. The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week Feedback of the week 'Nothing but awe for the lady in the front row of one of my longhaul flights, who had no-one in front of her so her screen was on the bulkhead in plain view, who chose to watch Blue Is The Warmest Colour' ''romanticize your life' is a great way to think about it! Hera's right, reaching out is only going to hurt in the long run. A clean cut does heal better than a serrated messy one. It will pass and letting this door stay closed will allow another, better, more compatible door to open! Celebrate the fact that you have this capacity to feel these wonderful lovey feelings because you will feel them again, there's no doubt. '
