Horror movies directed by Indigenous Australians are a largely rare category of cinema, immediately making Jon Bell’s Stolen Generations-themed spook-fest The Moogai a work of cultural significance. Even if the film – while unquestionably bold and daring – feels a little underdeveloped. Bell, The Moogai’s writer and director, expanding a short film of the same name from 2020, deploys creepy images that feel broadly familiar; it is steeped in familiar codes and conventions, while belonging to a very different political and ideological context to the standard genre fare.
Bell’s narrative centers around a heavily-pregnant Aboriginal lawyer Sarah (Shari Sebbens), who’s married to a carpenter, Fergus (Meyne Wyatt), with whom she has a six-year-old daughter, Chloe (Jahdeana Mary). Sarah has an uneasy relationship with her biological mother, Ruth (Tessa Rose), who has recently come back into her life decades after Sarah was taken from her and raised by a white family.
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