Norman (Jordan Waller) and twin sister Annabelle (Kathryn Wilder) live in the UK and struggle to make ends meet. He has chosen to carry on with the family business as the town butcher and she works as an actress, most notably seen in a stool softening campaign. After the death of their mother, the two find out that they were adopted and are originally from a bucolic berg in Queensland, Australia known as Two Heads Creek. Making the trek across the globe to find their real mother, Norman and Annabelle uncover a nasty secret thriving in their true home town involving a certain taste for human flesh. Directed by Jesse O’Brien and written by and starring Waller, Two Heads Creak is exactly the type of bonkers cannibal horror comedy you would expect from down under.

Upon landing in Australia, Norman and Annabelle are thrown onto a bus filled with immigrants and greeted by the blond bombshell tour guide Apple (Helen Dallimore). After a few heavy-handed jokes at the expense of foreigners, the bus lumbers 10 hours to the middle of nowhere, aka Two Heads Creek. While the busload of travelers follows Apple around town for a tour, Norman and Annabelle make their presence known and are told that their real mother has recently died. A funeral is held, but Norman smells more than a rat. Yeah, that stew they enjoyed upon arrival was tasty, but it wasn’t veal. What’s more, once the two discover that the town is, in fact, a hive of cannibals, they not only have to solve the mystery of the missing mother, but they have to stay off the menu as well.

Let’s be clear. This is big, bold, very broad, and gleefully gory horror-comedy. Subtlety doesn’t exist in Two Heads Creek and for the most part, the jokes work. Waller has written a relatively clever comedy that touches on everything from cannibalism to the social impact of immigrants in Australia all while spewing copious amounts of blood.  Oddly, as socially aware as the movie seems to be there are a few jokes that come off as homophobic rather than cheeky, but those are scuttled away quickly enough. O’Brien‘s direction really raises the material up to something akin to Looney Toons or vintage Peter Jackson, both of which are compliments.

While Two Heads Creek doesn’t reach the zany levels of Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil or Shaun of the Dead, it could be compared. There are moments of brilliance paired with wildly energetic direction, solid comedic performances, and the right amount of blood that makes you easily forget some of the bumps in the road.

6 out of 10 stars