Katrina Skinner – a teenage mother who can’t get enough sex, drink, drugs and crime – is every parent’s nightmare. What’s more, when her dad stops financing her lifestyle, she decides to have him killed off, using her considerable wiles (and ample cleavage) to find a willing assassin.
Using reportage-style testimonies from friends, family and police, this Australian curio pieces together the murder through flashbacks. We know Katrina, played with fierce conviction by In My Father’s Den’s Emily Barclay, is the prime suspect, but can the rozzers pin the crime on her?
Not sure if it’s a black comedy or a morality tale, Surburban Mayhem rattles along at a frantic pace, its mounting havoc veering it towards chaotic Natural Born Killers territory, even if the end result is more like The Last Seduction for ASBO kids. Still, at least Katrina, like the best cinematic misfits, is as compulsive as she is repelling.
