ShukerNature: REVIEWING ‘CARNIFEX’ – A CRYPTOZOOLOGY-THEMED CREATURE FEATURE FROM DOWN UNDER

 

Publicity
poster for Carnifex, exhibiting the characters
gazing up in awe at some formidable claw marks left upon a  tree trunk by a big unknown animal of seemingly
arboreal skill (© Sean Lahiff/Dancing Highway Productions/Arclight Movies/Common
Footage Content material Group – reproduced right here on a strictly non-commercial Truthful Use
foundation for academic/assessment functions solely)

Because of longstanding Australian FB
buddy and crypto-enthusiast Tim Morris kindly making it obtainable to me –
thanks Tim! – my film watch on 26 October 2023 was the pretty latest Australian
cryptozoology-themed creature characteristic Carnifex.

Directed by Sean Lahiff, and launched
only a 12 months in the past in December 2022 by Common Footage, Carnifex takes its identify in a common sense from the Latin phrase for
‘butcher’ and even (through the Roman period) ‘executioner’. Nonetheless, wildlife fanatics,
particularly cryptozoologists, may also concentrate on its extra particular,
zoological that means.

Consequently, in the event you’re of the latter
persuasion, you’ll have little doubt guessed right away from this film’s
title that whereas conservationists Ben (Harry Greenwood) and Grace (Sisi
Stringer) accompanied by documentary camerawoman Bailey (Alexandra Park) are
uncovering and recording deep throughout the Australian outback the huge wildlife
devastation triggered there by some latest, unprecedented bushfires, additionally they make
the startling, completely sudden, and really terrifying discovery of a dwelling
marsupial lion Thylacoleo carnifex. For
as soon as they do, additionally they uncover – very swiftly – simply how hyper-aggressive and
rapacious the creature is, forcing them right into a determined bid for survival in opposition to
this mega-belligerent blast from the previous, their ideas echoing solely too emphatically
the movie’s tagline: “Some species ought to stay extinct”.

This ferocious species was – or is? –  a predatory pouched mammal of feline type, leopard
or lioness stature (opinions differ), and presumably arboreal capabilities, however formally
deemed extinct for a lot of millennia. Nonetheless, some cryptozoologists really feel that its
putative reclusive survival into the current day could clarify occasional studies
of an Aussie thriller beast often called the yarri or Queensland tiger. It could even
have impressed the spoof killer koala referred to as the drop bear (koalas and marsupial
lions have been truly fairly carefully associated). Most of this pertinent background info,
nonetheless, isn’t alluded to within the film, sadly.

Yarri
or Queensland tiger, based mostly upon eyewitness descriptions (© Dami Editore srl – reproduced
right here on a strictly non-commercial Truthful Use foundation for academic/assessment functions
solely)

Talking of which: its build-up to this
very dramatic discovery, though very prolonged (see later), is engrossing, and
includes a trio of lead likeable characters that work together effectively collectively,
interspersed with loads of breathtaking photographs of real Aussie Outback However,
Carnifex suffers from two very
important, essential issues.

Firstly, as soon as the story really will get going,
it consists nearly solely of night-time scenes, leading to precise sightings
of the creature (with completely black pelage, thereby rendering it much more tough
to see in opposition to the darkness)  being as
shadowy and temporary as they’re seldom and inconclusive, i.e. loads of growling
and flesh-tearing sounds, however visually all however non-existent.

Secondly, when on this 90-odd-minute
film’s final 10 minutes we lastly – lastly! – get to see two
blink-and-you’ll-miss-them close-up full-face photographs of the (very) anatagonistic
animal in query (so fleeting in actual fact that after seeing them I then needed to
rewind and laboriously search them out by way of freeze-frame so as to make certain of
what they really revealed – one thing, by the way, that cinema audiences
for this film wouldn’t have had the posh of with the ability to do), guess what?

The movie makers had solely gone and bought
their Thylacoleo carnifex
basically fallacious – and after having saved their more and more impatient
viewers ready so lengthy to see it correctly too!

A
number of photo-stills from Carnifex
depicting the latter beast’s temporary appearances and, particularly, its dentition – click on image montage to enlarge for viewing functions (©
Sean Lahiff/Dancing Highway Productions/Arclight Movies/Common Footage Content material
Group – reproduced right here on a strictly non-commercial Truthful Use foundation for
academic/assessment functions solely)

All placental carnivores have fangs
consisting of enlarged higher canine enamel (and so too, for that matter, does,
or did, the thylacine or Tasmanian marsupial wolf Thylacinus cynocephalus, formally deemed extinct in 1936 however
which can nonetheless linger on on this island’s extra distant areas). In stark
distinction, conversely, the tusk-like fang counterparts of Thylacoleo have been truly greatly-enlarged higher incisors (it additionally
sported a pair of extraordinarily enlarged decrease incisors, however its higher canines have been
solely very small and stubby). But on this film, its Thylacoleo has been given enlarged higher canines, not incisors,
thereby rendering their Carnifex dentally deranged!

Furthermore, the 2 close-up photographs of its
entrance paws additionally revealed a telling absence of the large thumb claw constituting
one other morphologcal attribute of this distinctive predator.

Judging from these main morphological discrepancies,
I can solely assume that somebody apparently hadn’t executed their zoological homework
when researching T. carnifex for this
Carnifex-entitled film. Evidently,
it is a nice disgrace, particularly as in any other case it’s a most satisfying movie, with
participating characters amid the savage great thing about the Australian bush, and it might
have been an exquisite showcase for a very unique animal antagonist by no means
beforehand represented in a cinematic function.

Then once more, it’s truthful to say that many viewers
are unlikely to have in-depth data of thylacoleonid dentition anyway. In order that they
will merely not discover or acknowledge the inaccuracy of the latter’s depiction in
this film (significantly because it has no impact upon the plot itself), thereby enabling
them to benefit from the film as an in any other case very watchable, well-presented conservation-minded
creature characteristic, particularly one produced by a small impartial movie firm as
against a mega-bucks Hollywood studio. Additionally on the optimistic facet, it does
imply {that a} morphologically-accurate ‘dwelling Thylacoleo‘-themed monster film continues to be ready to be made.

Thylacoleo carnifex mannequin produced by Jeff Johnson and owned by Rebecca Lang, two longstanding
Fb mates of mine (© Jeff Johnson/Rebecca Lang – reproduced right here on a strictly
non-commercial Truthful Use foundation for academic/assessment functions solely)

By the way, a novel written by
Australian horror creator Matthew J. Hellscream (I am guessing that this can be a
pseudonym…) that was revealed in 2016, i.e. 6 years earlier than the current film beneath assessment right here was launched, was additionally
entitled Carnifex, and in addition featured some
guests to a distant space of the Australian bush encountering dwelling however scientifically-undiscovered
marsupial lions. In accordance with varied Adelaide
Advertiser articles, Hellstream took authorized recommendation when the film got here out
due to perceived title and plot similarities, however that’s not what I’m
involved with right here. What I am
involved with is that the very placing illustration of 1 such beast current
on the entrance cowl of Hellstream’s novel depicts it with completely correct
dentition – click on right here to view it, and pay attention to the
vastly enlarged incisors, and all however absent canines, plus the shearing blade-like
carnassials additional again.

I do not personal a duplicate of this novel (but),
however I’ve heard inform that the duvet art work was ready by acclaimed horror
artist Frank Partitions, who created the entrance cowl for Hellscream’s earlier
novel, Metro 7, however I can not affirm this.
Whoever did design it, nonetheless, clearly made the hassle to painting precisely the
distinctive dentition of this really distinctive mammalian predator.

Anyway, if you would like to look by the
darkness of the Outback at evening in quest of the toothy terror lurking on this
film, you’ll want to click on right here to observe an official Carnifex trailer on YouTube.

Lastly:
this assessment initially appeared in ShukerNature’s fellow weblog, Shuker In MovieLand. To view an entire chronological itemizing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand
weblog’s different movie critiques and articles (each immediately accessible by way of a
direct clickable hyperlink), please click on HERE, and please click on HERE to view a
full fully-clickable alphabetical itemizing of them.