The Moogai ★★★

AUSTRALIAN indigenous-themed films tend to be either dramas or comedy-tinged dramas.

It’s not often that they stray into any another genre, let alone straight-up horror.

So it’s a pleasant change to have the 2024 release The Moogai as the first feature written and directed by Jon Bell.

Based on Bell’s own 2020 short film of the same name, it skilfully uses a horror premise to comment on the deep impacts on indigenous people caused by  past government social policies that removed Indigenous children from their parents and lands.

In Bell’s language, Moogai is the word for a ‘ghost’ or ‘evil spirit’ and in his film is physically represented as a shape-shifter that takes possession of people.

But The Moogai is also a manifestation of the life-changing psychological impact suffered by the Stolen Generation.

Shari Stevens plays Aboriginal woman Sarah who is juggling career success with being a wife and mother who is pregnant with her second child.

Sarah was brought up by a white couple and cherishes this relationship which has been the mainstay of her life. She knows her birth mother Ruth, but is less tolerant of Ruth’s ways which are more traditionally indigenous.

When Sarah starts to see horrific visions and fears her children may be turning on her, Ruth’s warnings of an evil spirit and how to confront it are initially dismissed.

But as the visions and fears intensify, Sarah turns to her ancient culture for guidance.

Well acted and with some good dread-filled moments, The Moogai is a solid watch.

Watched at the cinema.