Rippy Digital and DVD Review

3 star rampaging rip-slicing roo action.

Rippy is a 2024 Australian horror creature feature, written and directed by Ryan Coonan and based on his short film, Waterborne. This is his feature directorial debut.

It is available now on Altitude.Film and UK Digital Platforms and on DVD from 13th January 2025, courtesy of Altitude Film Distribution.

“My Dad was a hero. A sporting hero. A war hero, and the local cop. He died young, to save me. I think about that a lot.”

In the Australian outback, we see a deserted camping ground. There is a warning sign, do not drink the water, the proximity to a local mine has contaminated the water with harmful algae. Unfortunately, the local wildlife can’t read, so local war veteran and general strange person Schmitty (Michael Biehn – The Abyss, The Terminator) gets a surprise visit in the form of a huge, seemingly indestructible kangaroo.

He hightails it into town to bring the news to the Sheriff, Maddie (Tess Haubrich – Alien Covenant, Spiderhead), daughter of the late sheriff, who was a war buddy of Schmitty. She however has her hands full with rowdy mine workers at the local bar. This is run by Donna (Angie Milliken – Take My Hand, Elvis) who also happens to be Schmitty’s ex and between them they dismiss his concerns.

She sends the two mine workers off to walk home through the bush in the dark, thus creating our first two victims of the aptly named Rippy, as well as the start of a magnificent string of bad decision making. Eager to live up to her hero father’s reputation, she sets about investigating and is led to arrest mine worker, Reuben (Nathan Jones – Mad Max: Fury Road, Troy). She tells the locals they are safe and goes on about her business. Will anyone listen to poor Schmitty before it’s too late?

“Maddie, I’ve seen it… I’ve seen a beast in the guise of a huge kangaroo. It was seven foot tall, big red, I named him Rippy.”

Rippy is an extremely entertaining film, worth a watch just for the name alone, genius. It has plenty of gore, lots of ripping and slicing and although it’s not the most original idea for a creature feature, what’s not to love about a giant kangaroo ripping people apart?

The special effects work well, they’re mostly practical effects with a team of puppeteers and animatronics experts bringing our giant kangaroo to life, which gives it something of an endearing quality (and amusing in places when it wiggles its ears).

Michael Biehn absolutely steals the show with a thoroughly enthusiastic and earnest performance, culminating in a brilliantly written heart to heart which leads to one of the most effective jump scares I’ve seen for a while. The whole thing feels very tongue in cheek and while it’s not one for people who take themselves too seriously, it is enormous fun and well worth a watch.

“I can’t see any sign of a knife or an axe. There’s no evidence of blunt force trauma either. These bodies look like they’ve been ripped apart by something.”

Rippy is on digital platforms from 30th December and on DVD from 13th January 2025