Dogwatch (1997)

Dogwatch is a curious mixture of old-fashioned genre elements, combined in surprising ways. It’s like a more self-conscious version of a 1940s Hollywood studio thriller, the kind made by Warner Bros with Humphrey Bogart, but with a slightly supernatural element. Russell Kiefel’s character – a diseased presence in body and mind – is an angel of death, a night-club pianist who skulks around the ship like the vampire Nosferatu. The problem with the film is that none of the conflict is satisfyingly developed or resolved. There is a fair amount of talk, but not enough action. When the crew members start to die, they fall over like nine pins, in a bewildering series of accidents and murders. It’s neither satisfying as genre – and which genre is it? – nor as post-modern deconstruction of genre. There are some effective sequences, but the film suffers overall from a woolly script and conception. It was never released theatrically.