MURDERDROME (2013)

Murderdrome (2013)
Directed by: Daniel Armstrong
Written by: Daniel Armstrong, Louise Monnington, Trent Schwarz
Starring: Jake Brown, Kat Anderson, Rachael Blackwood

MURDERDROME (2013)
Directed by Daniel Armstrong

A group of roller derby girls are stalked by the mysterious and deadly Momma Skate, a roller derby demon who’s determined to take the soul who possesses her necklace back to hell with her. Unfortunately, that soul is Cherry Skye who’s made another enemy in the form of Hell Grazer, a fellow roller derby girl who’s not too pleased that Skye is seeing her ex-boyfriend Brad. With two crazed women on her back, Skye must battle her way out of the mess once and for all.

Australian indie flick MURDERDROME is a cross between horror and comedy, but I’m unsure on which side it actually sits. The film is a low budget exploitation style tribute to both horror and roller derby, with the latter sport the main focus and possible draw of the film.

If you haven’t the fogiest how roller derby works, like myself, then this film doesn’t do a very good job at explaining it. When the characters aren’t competing, they still decide to stick to their 8 wheels whilst drinking milkshakes in the derby drome’s diner, scrapping with other derby girls and generally skating around the facility and alleys outside.

The story centres around Cherry Skye (Amber Sajben) who’s new beau Brad (Jake Brown) has presented her with a lucky necklace he purchased online, little realising that its cursed. Brad’s ex Hell Grazer (Rachael Blackwood) sees red at their relationship and will stop at nothing to teach Skye a lesson. Unfortunately for everyone involved, a demon named Momma Skate awakens. Skating on inline skates, rather than the traditional two row skates, the fetishist looking Momma Skate prowls around the derby looking for teens to rip apart with her hooked chains and knife.

There’s a good idea at the heart of MurderDrome, however I feel it’s been poorly executed. The characters look too much alike, bar from Psych (Louise Monnington) with the red hair, and the dialogue moves too quickly to understand. None of the characters are developed and the scenes between them flit from one to the other. I even struggled to work out whether certain friends were on the same derby team or whether they were a mixture of teams. Even the male characters come off weak, with only Danny Zuko wannabe Squids (Anthony Cincotta) having some sort of personality. What these characters can do though is skate, and by god, I’m jealous of that fact. I can just about inline skate, which I did as a kid, but I could never get the hang of those quads.

Away from the weak storyline, the horror scenes are portrayed in a cat and mouse type fashion. Momma Skate hunts the girls, spying her chance when the girls are separated. As she circles her victim, the sharp chains and hooks are poised, ready to tear flesh. A mixture of practical FX and CGI are used to create the bloody mess and the attacks are executed quite well, and done so in a gritty style that fits in with the exploitation genre.

Unfortunately, there’s not enough to keep the viewer’s attention during the 76 minutes running time. If the dialogue and storyboards were played out a lot smoother, it would be far more enjoyable.

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