THE OSIRIS CHILD: LEFT BEHIND

The term low budget films doesn’t always mean that no money was spent on a movie that was made. In most cases yes but not all. There are a number of films made with budgets far below the multi-million dollar label that qualify while still spending quite a bit on them. These days the tag tends to stick to movies that get little or no screen time and rush straight to DVD or films that played in theaters around the world but not the US. In many cases that doesn’t mean the film is lacking, just that for one reason or another it never hit screens here. To my knowledge that’s the case with THE OSIRIS CHILD.

In the future the Exor company terraforms planets to make them hospitable for humans to live on. In an effort to deal with indigenous life on these planets they’ve developed a process that turns humans into creatures adaptable to any environment that live to kill. The bad news is they’re using prisoners on their current transforming planet to do so. 

Kane (Daniel MacPherson), an ex-military man with a past, works for Exor and his daughter Indi (Teagan Croft) is visiting. He leaves her with a babysitter on planet and returns to work on the sky station above. A prison break releases the creatures on the planet and Exor realizes they have a potential press debacle on their hands. To prevent this from happening they stop all transports from the surface and plan to decimate the entire planet with a reactor explosion. When Kane is told by his friend what is going on he takes a ship and heads down to save his daughter.

Crash landing after being shot down he runs into Sy (Kellan Lutz), another man with a past. What happened prior to these events is told in flashbacks for both men but mostly Sy. An ex-prisoner there when the supposed riots began he knows the truth. But there is more to his past than that of being prisoner, a reason why he agrees to help Kane.

Along their way they run into a couple named Bill and Gyp (Luke Ford and Isabel Lucas), a rough crowd sort with a bus, who they pay to take them to the capitol city of Osiris so that Kane can rescue his daughter. In return they pay them and agree to include them in the bunker Kane has established on the planet.

Shot in Australia with a mostly Australian cast the movie is one that action and science fiction fans alike can enjoy. A number of people have said it’s a combination of STAR WARS and MAX MAX and they aren’t far off with the space ships of one and the terrain of the second. The story moves along at a fiery clip and doesn’t waste screen time with filler, instead focusing on the past and present stories of those involved combined to keep the viewer informed and interested at the same time.

The entire cast does a great job here making the characters they play believable and sympathetic. MacPherson’s Kane while being the battle hardened soldier isn’t played as knowing it all or the toughest among the group. That role lends itself to Sy and Kellan Lutz does a great job of showing the soft and hard sides of his character. Of those involved Lutz will most likely be the most recognizable having been a part of the TWILIGHT films. Croft does a solid job here too and will most likely carry forward as she grows up to be a fine actress.

The special effects of a science fiction film are what make or break it. The dogfight between spaceships is well done with enough CGI used to make it believable combined with cockpit shots that match well with the action. Vehicles and locations also show that the money was well spent here giving the world a gritty outpost feel.

But it will be the creatures that most will talk about in a positive or negative aspect. For me they worked fine. Rather than go CGI, which has ruined some movies, they went with practical effects on the creatures here, costume designs. The end result is a creature that looks somewhat like the vulture styled creatures in THE DARK CRYSTAL but more rounded out and fear inducing. It might not work in some settings but it does here, especially in the final sequence of the film.

On occasion it’s nice to find a film that has fallen under the radar of most viewers that is worth taking a look at. This is one of those films. While not rated there is only a few things that a parent might object to but not enough that a short conversation won’t take care of. The end result is an entertaining movie that’s worth the price of a rental and for sci fi fans worth adding to your collection.

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