PRESS RELEASE
“I wanted to make the kind of film I’d love to watch – wickedly funny, unsettling, and a little unhinged,” says Snatchers co-writer, co-director and star Craig Alexander. “That dark humour, sitting right on the edge of horror, is the space I love working in. This project is proof that if you back yourself, and surround yourself with the right people, you can create something bold and unapologetic.”
In a ramshackle hospital in a bleak, dystopian Australia, best friends Mac (Craig Alexander) and Fettes (Justin Hosking) scrape by as underpaid orderlies. Desperate for cash, they steal what looks like the perfect black-market score: a young, healthy corpse known only as Jane Doe (Hannah McKenzie). But just as they prepare to harvest her organs, Jane wakes up on the operating table. What follows is a darkly comic spiral of greed, fear, and survival, as they struggle to contain a not-so-dead body, outwit the authorities, and wrestle with their own desperation. Twisting horror into biting satire, Snatchers exposes toxic masculinity, exploitation, and the fragile bonds of friendship… all bundled together with a wickedly absurd sense of humour.
“Snatchers is about refusing to play it safe,” says co-writer and co-director Shelly Higgs. “At first glance, it’s a dark comedy about two men trying to sell a corpse’s organs, but beneath the absurdity lies a story about class divide and exploitation. These themes continue to deeply resonate in today’s world, and wrapping them in irreverence and humour made them accessible without losing their bite.”
Audiences will get the chance to savour the ingenious tonal shifts and acidic humour of Snatchers when it makes its way into local cinemas on November 13. In a fitting touch, this 100% shot-in-Canberra darkly comic treat will play at Limelight Cinemas in Tuggeranong after enjoying a special screening at The Capital Film Festival in Canberra on Halloween.
“Snatchers is irreverent, unsettling, and proudly local,” says Shelly Higgs. “It’s proof that Canberra artists can create cinema that resonates well beyond our city.”
After a special Halloween screening as part of the Capital Film Festival in Canberra, Snatchers will release at Limelight Cinemas in Tuggeranong in Canberra on November 13, and on November 16 at Lido Cinemas in Melbourne.