Suburban Mayhem

Goldman’s impassive, in-your-face and indeterminately ironic drama is loosely inspired by the Australian case of the Belinda Van Krevel, a serial killer’s sister who later confessed to soliciting the brutal murder of their father. Here the bad girl – a real femme fatale – is a feckless North Islander, Katrina (a convincing Emily Barclay, the tearaway from ‘In My Father’s Den’), Golden Grove’s most brazen slut, a disinterested mother with an overindulgent father (a fine Robert Morgan) and a near-incestuous relationship with a psychopathic brother who responds to an insult to her by cutting off the offender’s head with a samurai sword.

The director’s blackly humourous approach to the material is evident in his punctuating framing device – laughable media ‘interviews’ with the manipulative, calculating ‘bitch’ and other family members, following her heightened celebrity status following her father’s slaying – and his directing and dramatic skills are competent enough, but the film’s encouraging post-punk soundtrack and overall lack of critical comment or distance renders the film far too close to disposable exploitation movie for comfort.