Borrowing from the similar setup of Predators, The Furies sees protagonist Kayla (Airlie Dodds) kidnapped and dropped into the middle of nowhere via a coffin-like box. After finding other empty boxes like hers, Kayla soon discovers she’s in the midst of a deadly game that pits masked killers against women. As she attempts to find her fellow kidnapped friend, Kayla discovers the line between ally and foe isn’t so clear cut. Writer/director Tony D’Aquino attempts to shake up the well-trodden slasher formula with his feature debut. While not entirely successful, the blood and gore flow fast and free.
For the most part, The Furies plays like a by the numbers slasher that we’ve seen countless times before. D’Aquino tries to inject an air of mystery by changing up the players. There’s not one masked maniac and final girl, but many. The game element complicates matters by switching up motivations for the characters; there’s a little bit of strategy involved for the masked beasts. It comes in to play for the women attempting to outlast these axe and sickle-wielding men, too. But the dialogue is often pretty silly, and the new additions to the slasher formula are surface level only. There are a lot of questions that go unanswered.
With a title borrowed from Greek mythology, it seems as though D’Aquino might be going for a feminist slant, but that’s not exactly the case. The three Furies in Greek mythology were the goddesses Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, who represented anger, jealousy, and vengeance respectively. For the central ladies of the film, they embody those traits, and that’s about as far as the script takes them. In other words, they’re fairly bland and one note. Dodds does give it her all, though, and makes for a sympathetic final girl.
The real star of the film, though, is the practical gore effects. In most cases, when you sign up to watch a slasher, you want a decent body count and you want creative deaths. Luckily, The Furies delivers on that count. The deaths are brutal and not for the squeamish thanks to the fantastic work by the special makeup effects team. Gorehounds and die-hard slasher fans will be appeased by the practical effects bonanza alone.
The setting and production value are also pluses. The abandoned gold mine in the Australian wilderness gives the slasher a unique look that helps set it apart from the rest. The camera work, though, sometimes throws the tone off. Sometimes the film plays it stone cold serious, and other times it has a slapstick quality. The brisk runtime and pacing means that’s not a major issue, though. It’s lean and mean.
At the outset, D’Aquino seems interested in creating a deconstruction of the slasher formula and the patriarchy, but he quickly settles back in to more familiar territory. Which means there aren’t any surprises in store, outside of the fun kills. We never get to know any of these characters aside from their defining trait, either, so we never really care about what happens to them. Still, there’s an interesting world at the center of this film; the beauty and beast concept is one that should’ve been explored more. If you’re in the mood for a true-blue slasher that delivers on the gore and gruesome deaths, The Furies is sure to scratch that itch. It’s quick and dirty, but without much depth.
The Furies is currently available to stream on Shudder.
