WATCH: Snowtown [2011]

I seldom approach films with the subtitle 'Based On A True Story' or 'Inspired By Real Events'. However, there was something about Justin Kurzel's debut Australian feature-length, based on the 1999 Barrel Murders of Snowtown, Adelaide wherein eight bodies were found dismembered in barrels. Snowtown is bleak, depressing and has a colour palette that blurs between faded candy coatings to dirty tapwater. The actors are sweaty and their hair greasy. But these aren't bad points, these are a gloriously rendered series images from Lucas Pittaway's introductory monologue as Jamie, right through to this hard story's bitter end. It branches from an ambiguous sexual abuse incident involving Jamie, his younger brothers and a male neighbour. While his mother Elizabeth (Louise Harris) is out on a date, the neighbour photographs the boys naked. Ambiguity hangs in the air during this scene, as any molestation is only hinted at when we see the neighbour sit down at the kitchen table naked in the aftermath.

WATCH: The Mist [2007]

Frank Darabont and Stephen King have a definite rapport with onscreen pairings, similar to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, they just work well. So much so that King, who is said to be difficult to please when it comes to film adaptations of his work, thoroughly enjoyed the devastatingly bleak ending that The Mist delivers. Darabont's interpretation, while the CGI looks comparatively dated, hits all the right notes when it comes to human struggle, survival and desperation. Touching on familiar tones like xenophobia, religious extremism and suicide in a world that has lost control without any explanation as to how or why before the body count starts racking up.

Using familiar faces to those who have seen the Darabont-produced The Walking Dead, and an excellent star-making turn with Thomas Jane, the delivery of this tale of survival in enclosed spaces is perilous and harrowing to endure. But that's what makes it a powerful watch. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is a successful graphic artist who lives with his wife and son in familiar King-territory Maine. A violent thunderstorm uproots a large tree in the garden and the boathouse. Drayton, who is on previously unfriendly terms with his neighbour, Brent (Andre Braugher), set aside their differences as a means to help each other out by taking a trip to the local store now that Brent's car is completely destroyed.