Wow! An adjective, an adjective, my kingdom for an adjective to describe the cinema of Lawrie Brewster. With The Slave and the Sorcerer, he leaned into the Albert Pyun and Stephen Weeks style of filmmaking. Now, with The Reign of Queen Ginnarra, the director goes full John Boorman by way of Ridley Scott. Megan Tremethick has emerged, phoenix-like, as the reincarnation of the screen siren Vivian Leigh and the queen of indie cinema, with a stylistically spine-chillingly majestic turn as the title character Ginnarra. If you are familiar with “the Scottish play,” then you’re partially aware of the score here.
Queen Ginnarra (Tremethick) has come to the throne before her time. Arrogantly seizing control of the realm after murdering her own father. Then, in the abyss’s darkness, she sought to further quench her lust for power. Giving herself over to the black arts and the powers of the mind, the queen, in Morgan La Fey fashion, brings forth a son. To celebrate her glory, administer her wrath, and potentially succeed her to rule. But the masters of the dark abyss demand constant sacrifice in order for Queen Ginnarra to maintain her reign of darkness and tyranny. With the blood of the innocent flowing like rivers throughout the land, in the queen’s haste to conquer all, she has neglected to deal with the one hero, strong of heart and pure of spirit, who has a claim as the rightful king.
“…the masters of the dark abyss demand constant sacrifice in order for Queen Ginnarra to maintain her reign of darkness and tyranny.”
This is Ginnarra’s brother, the wayward prince, Elderon (Andrew Gourlay), who, as his sister queen’s diabolical plots unfurl unopposed, roams the land like Max von Sydow’s Antonius Block, in close counsel with Death, who possibly awaits him at quest’s end? Those once faithful to Elderon’s father have secretly brought plotting to bring about the downfall of Ginnarra, who brutally and mercilessly annihilates any that cannot surrender to her rule and relinquish all to her exalted highness, marked for death. They have a secret servant who walks the line between revolutionary and traitor to the crown. As luck would have it, they delivered the prince into the conspirators’ hands after a failed assassination by the queen’s son. Like the Slave and the Sorcerer folks, yes, there are dragons in this Brewster film, too.
The Reign of Queen Ginnarra is epic, with the sweeping romanticism of Excalibur or Kingdom of Heaven. Brewster mixes his style in nicely, mixed from his Hex Studios and British Horror Studios. Co-writer Sarah Daly and the rest of the fine folks working on this film are not waiting for Hollywood’s permission to go big. They’re already there. This is the work of a company of film artisans, fueled by the same passion and inspiration as the films that stir them to make these glorious odes to the fantasy cinema of yore, whilst breaking new ground for the future.
So, as to that adjective, the final word on The Reign of Queen Ginnarra? Nonpareil!
"…goes full John Boorman by way of Ridley Scott."
Are you serious? These videos are terrible!! Low quality, poorly acted and directed. Hilarious to watch though 🤣
This was not a review. Was it paid for? Did the person even watch the film? It basically just talked about the (nonexistent) plot, not any of the actual elements of the film. You want a real review? Here you go:
This is from the series of content-producing multiple studios (it’s a long, bizarre, confusing story) run by Scottish ‘director’ Lawrie Brewster and ‘actor’ Megan Tremethick. Brewster, who dresses like Alfred Hitchcock and takes photos where he tries to look like old Alfie, says he’s inspired by Akira Kurosawa (!) and Maya Deren (!!) and such. It certainly doesn’t show up onscreen. Tremethick is a bizarre character who genuinely seems to think she’s Vivien Leigh. She just made a four-hour horror film she called “perhaps the most ambitious horror film ever made.” I somehow doubt it. The adjective ‘delusional’ was made for these two.
But what of The Reign of Queen Ginnarra (which also appears online, confusingly, as Crown of Shadows, for which ‘director’ Brewster has changed his named to ‘Richard Campbell’ for some weird reason)? It’s absolutely terrible. But what’s up with it? Terrible acting across the board, with a charisma-and-muscle-free lead actor who looks like a rat-faced drug dealer who used to live below me in a flat years ago. Half the film takes place in a bloody forest, obviously because it costs nothing. Bored men hack at each other and cut throats with blunt sword edges. CGI blood sprays tiredly everywhere. Mind-numbingly false, unchoreographed sword fights abound.
There is zero throughline to the awful cinematography, so the film has no overall look and no two scenes look the same. In one scene, the weather changes from dry to snow-covered, from one shot to the next, with no explanation given at all! Seriously. It’s utterly bizarre, pure Ed Wood territory. The soundtrack is mixed too loud, probably to cover the terrible dialogue. Sample: “I’m going to have your head.” “This head?” The English-language Gregorian chanting adds a note of unintentional hilarity, as does the continual reappearance of Death (reminding the viewer of the Grim Reaper in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life -“It’s a Mister Death, he says he’s come about the reaping or something?”) to ask the zero-hero if he wants to die, before shuffling off again when he replies in the negative. There is zero plot.
The film is 142 minutes (over)long! It’s full of CGI and AI effects that do not look good onscreen, and the dragon is utter dross. Most of the budget went on the smoke machine for the endlessly misty shots! I could go on, but there’s no point. When even the ‘director’ (who has been making ‘films’ for 15 years – if this is his level of achievement after that protracted length of time, he may as well quit – seriously) disowns and tries to hide a film on the net (it’s impossible to see his other films without buying them on physical media for £29 a pop! Not a stream on the net except this one! Hidden in plain sight), you know what you are getting. BE WARNED.
(Check the IMDB reviews for Crown of Shadows if you want REAL reviews of this film)