Storm Warning is one of the most brutal and savage thrillers you’ll ever see. The plot has been done about a million times, but the director and five actors manage to stand the story on its head and give it a few new spins that will make your hair stand up.

The conceit of the movie is simple: Pia (Nadia Fares) and Rob (Robert Taylor) are an upwardly mobile couple in Australia who go for a bit of sailing and end up lost in dangerous territory. Pia is an artist and Rob is a lawyer, and neither of them are suited for what they encounter in this film.

The screenplay was written over 30 years ago, but was thought too violent to produce, so it never got made till now. After viewing the film, I have to agree about the violence. This is mean, bitter stuff that will take a truly stout-hearted viewer to watch.

I also have to admit that the scenery is breathtaking. The Australian setting is absolutely beautiful. With the way the director slowly pulls the audience into the madness that’s about to erupt, there’s plenty of time to enjoy the local flora and fauna. The pacing was, at times, almost too slow; but once the story got up and running, you couldn’t break away from the screen.

While running from the storm and hoping to get their bearings, Pia and Rob reach a remote farmhouse. After breaking in, they quickly discover that there is nothing normal about anyone that lives there. Sex toys lay out in the open and pages ripped from skin magazines decorate the walls. I knew at that point that only bad things could happen.

Just minutes later, Rob discovers a huge amount of marijuana growing in the barn. He realizes at the same time I did that whoever lived there couldn’t afford to let them escape. And at that moment, the rough men they’d seen earlier arrive back at the house. John Brumpton, Matthew Wilkinson, and David Lyons are terrifying as the backwoods villains.