FORESIGHT KILLER INSTINCT (2012) Review

Directed by: Duncan Cunningham

Starring: Martin Cunningham, Michael Edward Williams, Duncan Cunningham

I always get excited when I have the chance to check out new indie films. Sure the quality and production values may not be as high as that of a multi-million dollar Hollywood film but most of the time what you get instead is an interesting story told by passionate filmmakers, and of course it’s always nice to know what you’re about to watch isn’t going to be yet another unnecessary remake, sequel, prequel or reboot being churned out by the Hollywood machine.

FORESIGHT KILLER INSTINCT is the debut feature film from the Cunningham Clan, a filmmaking collective headed by director Duncan Cunningham. It follows the character Glen Parsons (Martin Cunningham) who is a psychic. His brother – a police officer - Matthew (Duncan Cunningham) brings him along to the scene of a murder to see if Glenn can use his abilities to reveal the identity of the killer. Detective Lance Steel (Williams) is in charge of the investigation and doesn't take too kindly to Glen’s appearance at the scene, and with good reason. Glen lays his hands upon the corpse and experiences the series of events which led up to the person’s death. The killer was Detective Steel. Becoming suspicious of Glen’s knowledge the corrupt Steel and his equally corrupt partner pay a visit to the psychic’s home and kill his wife and unborn child before shooting Glenn himself in the head and leaving. Unbeknownst to them Glen has somehow survived the gunshot and now finds himself fuelled by the need for revenge. With uncontrollable rage he rains violence down upon criminals with the ultimate goal of killing Steel.
Although the bulk of the film is quite a simple revenge story there are also a few sub-plots worth mentioning. Detective Steel finds himself under investigation by Internal Affairs, Glen’s brother Matthew goes undercover to infiltrate a motorcycle gang, and there are various interesting characters entering and exiting throughut the film.

It’s hard to imagine the filmmakers not purposely making these characters exaggerated in both actions and personality, particularly when it comes to Detective Steel. Steel is the sum of every crooked cop you have probably ever seen in film or television, he is involved in murder, drugs, cover-ups and a multitude of other less than legal activities, and he’s not too subtle about it either. Is he a bit over the top? Sure, but what this does is let the audience know without a shadow of a doubt just what he is; the villain. He’s supposed to be an unlikeable bastard and believe me he is.
And of course there is the tortured psychic Glenn who right from the beginning seems a little unstable (I suppose that’s what touching corpses and seeing their last moments of life flash before your eyes does to you). After the violent and deadly altercation at his home however he goes completely off the rails, and directs his anger not only at Detective Steel but any other evil doers he comes across. At first this violence may seem to have no real rhyme or reason to it but if you keep in mind that this man’s wife and unborn child have been murdered and he himself shot in the head and left for dead, it’s easy to excuse.

Although the level of acting here is relatively amateur some of the cast show some nice potential and when considering the low budget and the DIY nature of the film the issues with acting can be easily overlooked. Also counterbalancing this is the fact that the story is interesting and there are some really good looking makeup and practical effects and plenty of blood and gore.
Visually FORESIGHT is very distinct and it’s apparent that a lot of post production work was done with the use of filters and so on. The overall look is very dark and somewhat macabre and coupled with the metal soundtrack from Melbourne band Aquilus it gives the movie a very unique style.

FORESIGHT KILLER INSTINCT is not the best movie you will see this year but it is obvious that everybody involved had a lot of fun and a lot of effort has gone into this debut feature from the Cunninghan Clan. An obvious love of genre films is also apparent and the simple fact that I found this more entertaining than quite a few of the bigger budget Hollywood offerings this year is a good thing.