TIFF Review: Out of the Blue

In Out of the Blue, director Robert Sarkies chronicles the 1990 Aramoana massacre that ripped apart a peaceful New Zealand town. Other parts of the world might have violence and murder, but in this small coastal town where everyone knew everyone else, the worst the local police department had ever had to deal with was small-time break-ins and attacks on sheep by wild dogs. This was a community where children roamed freely on their bikes, neighbors helped neighbors build their houses, and doors were never locked. The town's innocence was forever lost November 13 and 14, 1990, when local resident David Gray (played here by Matthew Sunderland), known to everyone in Aramoana, went on a violent rampage, killing people he'd known and lived near all his life.

Sarkies brings us into the story on the morning of that fateful day, as parents sent children off to school and townsfolk went about their normal business. The camera's perspective takes us back and forth between the locals, the beauty of the pristine New Zealand setting, and the crumbling mind of a man on the brink of a murderous breakdown. The film is tautly directed, easing the audience into the languid pace of day-to-day life as it was in Aramoana before the shootings, and gradually increasing the tension as events progress.

Gray, who had clearly deteriorated far beyond the mere eccentricity that his neighbors saw in him, went to his bank that morning to get a bank cheque for a down payment on a rifle, and irrationally yelled at the teller for telling him there is a fee for the service. We next see Gray at the gun shop, putting a downpayment on the gun (which he never came back for) and asking whether it has a silencer.

When Gray's craziness boils over later that day and he starts shooting with a rifle, it takes a while for the townspeople and police to even realize something is wrong. The sound of gunshots, which in some areas of the world folks might not think twice about, are not something these townspeople would normally hear within their quiet town, so at first they are mistaken for someone perhaps setting off firecrackers. When Gray sets fire to a house after shooting two victims there, the people of the town, naturally, come to see what's wrong and to help -- a community dynamic Gray was clearly aware of, as he hid, like a sniper in a war zone awaiting the enemy, waiting to take out those who would come to put out the fire .

The film draws us into the terror of the townspeople as they realize they are under attack -- by one of their own, no less -- and that he is killing indiscriminately anyone who crosses his path. As they barricade themselves in their homes to wait out the long night of wondering if they will be their mad neighbor's next target, we can feel their fear and their anguish as they wonder who among them has already been hurt or killed. By the next day, when police from neighboring communities come to assist, and Gray is finally taken down, the toll on Aramoana was high: 13 people, including four children, lost their lives on that day. And it is to them, and to the survivors, that Out of the Blue is dedicated.

In his intro prior to the screening, Sarkies spoke of growing up in a town near Aramoana at the time of the shootings, and feeling the need to tell this story about how the town was impacted by the tragic events of that day, while always being sensitive to the victims, the survivors, and the community at large. When word of the project was first announced, he said, there were those who felt it was too soon to make a film about the murders -- or that it was inappropriate for such a film to be made at all. Sarkies agreed to meet with representatives of the town prior to shooting, and let them read the completed script. After they read it, they gave the go ahead, with the conditions that the film not be shot in the town itself, and that a screening be held for the townspeople prior to it being screened publicly. Several survivors met and worked closely with the actors playing them in the film.

The film handles the dreadful events of that day, and the grief of the town, quite respectfully, while staying as true to the facts as possible, based on police reports and survivor accounts and, perhaps more importantly, by keeping the focus on the people of Aramoana and their response to the tragedy, rather than focusing heavily on Gray. Gray's presence was essential to the story, of course, but the filmmakers didn't want to have the focus of the film on the killer, and that decision is what gives Out of the Blue its heart.

Sunderland lost 17kg for the part to fully capture the emaciated state that Gray was in on the day he died. Details of Gray's crib (seaside cottage) were meticulously replicated to be exactly as it was at the time as well. Gray's home, which was torched after the tragedy, was a map that helped shed light on his madness. Cases like this are hard enough for survivors to deal with when the perpetrator is a stranger in their midst; when someone like David Gray takes the lives of his own neighbors, the endless questions of "how could we not know," and "how could he kill people he'd known all his life?" add layers of agongy to an already tragic story. Out of the Blue is an excellently made film that documents the tragedy Gray left in his wake both honestly and respectfully, and one can only hope that the survivors have, in some small ways, found peace and healing.