“There’s something unnerving about seeing a more familiar landscape form the backdrop of a thriller film,” writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL after watching the Australian movie thriller Apex. 

It can be a fascinating and amusing experience to hear a foreign actor try to take on the Aussie accent.

In Apex, Netflix’s newest horror thriller flick, Welsh talent Taron Egerton does a pretty pretty ripper job though, mate.

Far from perfect but entertaining in an almost caricature kind of way, the Kingsman star here plays a psychopathic outdoorsman who hunts people in the outback for sport.

How friendly. Think Wolf Creek meets Predator.

The plot follows Sasha (Charlize Theron), an extreme climber who after the death of her partner travels out into the Australian wilderness in an attempt to start a fresh chapter.

When she meets Ben (Egerton) at first she’s charmed by his charismatic exterior and knowledge of the land, not knowing she is the target of his newest hunt. 

The film was shot across Victoria and NSW in some of Australia’s most stunning national parks including the Grampians and Yarra ranges.

There’s something unnerving about seeing a more familiar landscape form the backdrop of a thriller film.

Apex certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does make for 90 minutes of fair dinkum thrills.

FOR one of the most popular streaming platforms on the market, one has to hand it to Apple TV Plus for pushing some of the boldest and most original concepts out there.

Widow’s Bay is the newest series to hit the catalogue, a comedy horror series about a mayor who takes on the job of running a small town that might be cursed. 

Star of The Americans Matthew Rhys plays the leader of the populace on a tiny island off the coast of New England.

The community is thrown into chaos when a well-known local boat captain mysteriously vanishes.

Fear spreads when some of the townsfolk begin to speculate the man has been taken by a supernatural fog. 

Is it all nonsense or is there something unearthly actually afoot? It’s the mayor’s job to find out. 

Much of the comedy here comes from a slew of references to classic horror films, parodying some of the greats without losing its creep factor.

Despite being heavily inspired by the scary canon before it, Widow’s Bay manages to stir all that in together to make itself something truly entertaining. 

IT being 2026 and all, everything with a sliver of popularity must have a whole universe of spin-offs attached to it.

Such is now the case for The Handmaid’s Tale, the confronting dystopian show based on Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel.

The last season of this excellent drama hit screens just last year, but now a new show has picked up the story.

The Testaments (on Disney Plus) follows a new generation fighting to escape the control of the republic of Gilead, a brutal regime that strips women of their rights and keeps its people under crushing surveillance.

The story follows three new characters whose perspectives give deeper insight into the leadership of Gilead as it begins to crack.

The Testaments comes from another book by Atwood that was published in 2019, so there’s a strong story to be told here.

The problem is that it’s made The Handmaids tale show suffer from what one might call “spin-off-itis”.

After the series ran for six seasons, many found the ending far too open and inconclusive.

When you bring an audience on a journey for eight years and tell them it’s coming to an end you owe them a definitive conclusion.

Why was the end of this hugely popular series, which long ago went beyond the source material of Atwood’s original novel, so anti-climactic? Well the answer is The Testaments. 

It’s a trend more and more shows are starting to suffer from. Compromise the story and its ending in order to keep it going.

What is it they say? The show must go on?

Maybe in this context, it’s better off.