Caught Inside (2010)

The acting was very natural and believable. I enjoyed the setting on the yacht and how friction became tension and escalated to much worse from there. The biggest message the film conveyed (to me) was to be very weary of women who sexually taunt men and then blow things out of proportion when the guy makes a move. Sam (Daisy Betts) was clearly eyeing Bull (Ben Oxenbould) but then made out with Rob (Sam Lyndon) because he made a move before Bull could. When Bull finally made a move, she rejected him in the worst possible way - even when he later very calmly wanted to apologize.I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the film; in fact I enjoyed it very much! The film became quite psychotic, though, and even became difficult to watch because it was done so well, and because Ben Oxenbould stole the show as Bull.

What might appear to be a low-budget surfer-dude movie with sex, skin and stupid plot turns out to be a well-scripted, tightly told and well acted suspense film with plenty of sexual tension and a truly disturbing portrait of "the-killer-among-us". Best thing about CAUGHT INSIDE is it's in every respect believable. One walks away from the film truly suspicious that, beneath a thin veneer of humanity in some of us, scratch the surface and/or tweak the circumstances, we're simply packs of animals divided into the dominant and the submissive. There's hardly a moment of fluff, padding; e.g., even the surfing clips are minimal. This flick is further proof that hard work, not necessarily gobs of money, pays off. Like to see more from the makers.

Surfers head out to catch some waves and a power struggle unfolds on a sailing boat. That's the premise of this feature film, which would have benefited from some extra editing. Ben Oxenbould does a great job as your typical testosterone filled Aussie dickhead, who, much like the screenwriter of this movie, seems to be losing the plot quite often. Sam, the female lead who gets a kick out of manipulating people, seems to be equally creepy as Bull (Oxenbould) but the film only threads down this path very lightly. The other characters are pretty one dimensional and the focus stays on Bull, who's up there with other great on-screen sociopaths. The low budget can't be blamed for a missed Oscar opportunity but rather the way the story is presented to the viewer.Recommended for that holiday trip with friends and foes.

I saw this on the first public screening so there were cast and crew there and the mood in the room of the general public in attendance was very supportive which made it for a very enjoyable experience on the whole. Though Ben Oxenbould's performance is the stand out for me, the rest of the cast are also incredibly good and deserve much praise. What I liked most about this film was the believability of the characters, even the villain is someone you can imagine existing (and in school days I'm sure some of us met one or two people who were destined to turn out like the villain!). I very much enjoyed how characters acted in a such realistic manner. One of the male characters is completely de-masculinised throughout the villains reign and unable to protect the other characters, or his girlfriend, which was quite innovative and just screamed of authenticity. Too many films are full of testosterone fuelled 5 minute fight scenes, where as this films fights were clumsy and awkward, as they would be in real life.The 'hero' of the piece (I can't remember the names properly but the brown haired fit looking guy who starts a romance with Sam) is written very well in not being too tough either, he's masculine, and brave, but he's no Vin Diesel, he's just a human trapped in a desperate situation doing the best he can.My only criticism is that perhaps it took too long to get to the meaty part of the film when the villain takes control of the boat. The last movie of this type I saw was Donkeypunch, and though that was good in a popcorn movie kinda way, 'Caught Inside' is ahead of a lot of thrillers is the completely believable behaviour and realistic and natural dialogue, which in turn makes for some quite edge of your seat moments. As an indie Australian film the cast and crew have done incredibly well in pulling together this enjoyable and tense little film and I'd definitely be proud to see it go overseas and do the indie festival circuits.