User Reviews

The Clinic is an Australian horror/thriller starring the beautiful Tabrett Bethell as a young mother-to-be named Beth and tragically the late Andy Whitfield as her fiancé, Cameron. After a near accident on the road they stop at a motel and things take a turn for the worse.

It is loosely inspired by true stories of infant abduction, and after nipping out for some food, Cameron returns to the motel only to find his pregnant fiancée missing. Naturally he reports her disappearance to the police but things do not improve for either of them. We then cut too Beth who wakes in an ice bath naked and no longer carrying her baby after someone has performed a homemade c-section. Naturally distraught she sets about trying to find out who did this to her, and on her way she finds other women in the same situation and discovers they are all locked in an abandoned facility.

I knew nothing of the film so went in blind when this came on TV last week. I didn't know if it was a horror, torture film, about serial killers or creepy ghosts, but it was on the horror channel so I thought I would give it a watch and without spoiling it too much I was glad I did. The Clinic is set in the year 1979 which we are told is six years prior to the advent of DNA testing. I thought this was a strange statistic to open a film with, but as it progressed and ultimately concluded the movie would only work in this time frame, in the current day and age there would be no point to any of it. However, overlooking this and trying to appreciate the film for what it is, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.

The lead actress Tabrett Bethell is brilliant as Beth. She really made me care about her journey and nice to see someone beautiful who can really act. She is on-screen pretty much the whole time, and her journey gets worse and worse. She meets other women in the facility who have all had the same surgery, and they eventually they find a room with all their babies in. With no idea who is doing this to them, they are made quickly aware (by someone or something!) of the fact that they each contain a clue to the identity of their baby – inside their freshly stitched wounds. One by one the numbers dwindle and I really like the direction the film took with this, very reminiscent of Saw II in particular. Naturally we get a bit of bloodshed but nothing too graphic or extreme, the film relied more on the story and characters with some brief moments of killing and wound opening thrown in.

The main tragedy of the film was that the ending was a let down. Don't get me wrong, I liked the conclusion of Beth's journey, and some neat little revelations about her past thrown in added to it, but her partner Cameron just disappeared. After he located where Beth was being held hostage, he set off to save her only to have an accident. Like in most films I was waiting for him to return and save the day but he never appeared again in the film. After doing some research, I found out the actor Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in the same year The Clinic was filming and the rumours were he was too ill to continue filming, and whilst he still appears in the first half of the film his character was just written out of the second half. It would have been interesting to see how they originally intended to use his character if he tragically wasn't ill, but sadly it really tarnished the film as it felt incomplete. A real shame, as he was a great actor and had a real commanding presence about him in the scenes he is in.

Visually the film looked good, the barren Australian outback looked beautiful and desolate, and the facility the girls were held hostage in was claustrophobic enough without getting boring and the director worked well by changing the scenes enough to keep offering us something different. The other girls all played their parts well and whilst I kept waiting for the usual horror film clichés none of them happened really so that was a positive. Mix this is with a killer in their midst, some silent bad guys watching on video cameras and a bent cop/disgusting pervert motel owner and you have a very different horror film. A least it offered something unique and this is always good to see.

I really feel that if we had seen a better ending this film would have been a much bigger hit and ultimately a more enjoyable experience, as it was I saw a great effort but it fell away and felt incomplete towards the end, with too many loose ends and unanswered questions that made the whole film seem a little far-fetched. The villains were never really explained, and whilst you will find out the motives it just doesn't make much sense, such a shame as the film started so well and had so much potential.

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A low budget 'genre' film shot in 29 days, in the outback town of Deniliquin, NSW, set in a pre-DNA era of 1979. And with all things considered, its quite a slick and well executed movie. Apparently Rabbits got the idea for the plot after reading about the Lisa M. Montgomery case... fetal abduction is all the rage, apparently.

This film is clearly marketed as horror, and while Rabbits dips his toes in a couple of horror genres, (survival/slasher/psychological/Saw-ish etc) the Clinic is not really a horror film in it's execution. It's really quite a mess of a movie as it never knows exactly what it wants to be. Some may call it 'refreshing' or 'genre bending', which is fair I guess, but I just don't think it worked.

The violence is tame considering the subject matter, and the film offers little to no suspense, at least none that was effective. My guess is Rabbits isn't a big horror fan, as he shows no real understanding of the genre. On one of the few positive notes, Tabrett Bethell's performance was excellent, and I would watch her in anything, particularly if she gets her kit off, which was the highlight of the film for me.

I was disappointed with the Clinic, and my guess is, most horror fans will be too.

In 1979, in the Christmas Eve, Cameron (Andy Whitfield) and his pregnant fiancée Beth (Tabrett Bethell) are traveling through the outback of Australia to spend Christmas with Beth's parents. In the evening, Cameron is thrown off road by a reckless driver and the couple decides to stay in a low-budget hotel with the inconvenient receptionist Marv in Montgomery, a small town with a population of 532 dwellers. Late night, Cameron is hungry and can not sleep; so he decides to seek a restaurant. He leaves a message to Beth, but the Chinese Sky Dragon is closed and his car runs out of gas. When he returns to his room 26, Beth is missing and he calls the police. Cameron accuses the cynical Marv to Officer Underwood (Marshall Napier); however, the police officer does not give credit to his accusation and Cameron tries to hit the receptionist. He is arrested but while in the police car, he gets Underwood's gun and controls the situation. Meanwhile, Beth awakes in a bathtub full of ice and with a C-section. She seeks out her baby and finds four other women in the same situation. Sooner they discover that somebody has stolen their babies and a deranged sixth woman is killing each mother trying to identify her baby.

"The Clinic" has a conventional beginning of this type of movie, with a young couple checking-in a low-budget hotel in the middle of nowhere to spend the night and something weird happening. After that, there is a collection of unbelievable situations in an absurd and ridiculous plot. The principle of abducting six pregnant women to dispute among themselves and select the best "specimen" is so laughable, incredible, silly and hilarious that would be enough to ruin the flick. A couple that follows this tragedy to adopt a child is something senseless. But the pathetic author is not satisfied yet, and brings the drama to Beth and her family. In addition, there are many idiotic details. For example, what Cameron could expect to find late night in a town with a population of 532 people? Why didn't he fuel his car to be ready to depart in the morning? Why the title "The Clinic"? Beth is recovering from a traumatic cesarean section, but is capable to run like hell. The slaughterhouse is supposed to be abandoned but there are cattle there. The women know that someone is chasing them, but Dr. Veronica decides to open her own stitches to see the identification tag inside her instead of fleeing and bring the police. Why Ms. Sheppard and the weird foster parents have brought Beth with them if they intended to kill her? The year is 1979, but the costumes and hair cutting are not from the 70's; further, I believe it is unnecessary to tell that it is "six years prior to the advent of DNA testing. Cameron vanishes and in the end the viewer knows that he had died. I believe that is enough to point out how stupid this film is. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Clínica" ("The Clinic")

Was trying to find something on TV and ran across this. I enjoyed this movie way more than I thought I would. Had some intense and exciting scenes. It held my interest and that's not easy to do. I really thought this movie was well done. Some parts I couldn't even look at because it was a a bit gory. Also intense as well Definitely not a bad film The only thing I really thought was unbelievable was how strong the women were after having major surgery. Like when they were running from the dogs and when Beth was chasing Duncan.

I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for something good to watch. This movie will not disappoint.

Started out well enough but rapidly descended into unbelievability and a ridiculous storyline. I don't suppose that's too unusual for films of this genre but there was nothing to redeem it.

Incidentally the male protagonist of this movie is the lead from Spartacus Blood and Sand, who essentially disappears about a 1/3 of the way in after a car accident and remains unexplained or revisited subsequently. I don't know if that was also due to his reported illness which apparently also effected that series. In any case it seemed as if he was going to be the big hero busting away from the cops but in the end it was all left to girl power somewhat ironically against girl power. Coincidental or what?

Also appears to have been done by the same crew i.e. blood flowing images and use of Roman numerals.

A couple drives around deserted roads in Australia when they are driven off the road by some old ambulance. They end up in a motel. At night the husband goes off to get something to eat. When he returns, his pregnant wife is missing. The cop and the motel attendant are a bunch of creeps. The cop ends up arresting the husband. While in the cop car he takes the cop's gun and the car and goes in search of his wife.

Meanwhile the woman wakes up in a bathtub full of ice. Her lower abdomen is sutured. They have taken her baby via cesarean. She meets other women in the same condition, they all dressed like inmates with a number. "The Clinic" they find themselves in is a cow farm with some buildings that look like a factory. But they realize that someone is after them. Someone is killing them one by one. At some point they find the babies. They are color coded in cages. No one knows whose baby belongs to whom. Inside the mother's wombs are corresponding colored tags. That's the only way to identify the baby, by cutting the mother open, and indeed the killer does just that.

But there are other people as well. A couple looking at all this via cameras. And there is some mentally disabled guy who disposes of the mess left behind by the athletic killer.

Eventually our girl confronts the bad guys and finds out what the clinic is all about. It's a clever idea that involves a contest to determine which mother is the fittest and that way baby is stronger. There is also a twist near the end.

The Clinic has a lot going for it. The lead actress, Tabrett Bethell, is one of the most beautiful actresses I've seen in a while. Poor Andy Whitfield gets a rather thankless role. The idea is great. One has to remember, as we are told at the beginning, that the story takes place before DNA testing was developed, otherwise it all seems pretty silly. In fact, one has to see this movie till the very end for the logic to work out. Though, not all questions are resolved. Still, The Clinic is a unique and interesting movie. The end proves particularly satisfying. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of movies that don't give us a lot to work with until the end, but The Clinic gives us plenty to forgive some of the duller moments in the middle.

I saw this last night as it premiered on Sky Movies. Synopsis sounded intriguing and I've enjoyed quite a few Austrialian "horror" films in my time.

The storyline kept me engaged and I wanted to carry on and see what the outcome was. Some other reviewers have made negative comments about the ending but I had no problem with it and thought everything came together at the end.

The only problem I did have with this film however, was the female characters, having just had Cesarean sections, were running and jumping around, climbing, etc. As someone who has had a Cesarean, I know from experience that you can not move around like that, in some cases for weeks afterwards! Although this might not be a problem for any other viewer, I just wished that had the women acted in such a way as a normal woman would having undergone such surgery, it might have added an extra element to the film.

Doesn't make it a bad movie though, especially the actress who played Beth, she was excellent. Definitely worth a view for the story.

Somebody had an idea for a horror film and a location: an abandoned...what? some sort of industrial slaughterhouse? Anyway somebody let him use an industrial site for his movie. The idea was pretty dumb in itself but he went ahead anyway. Then he didn't know how to tell the story. Because he hadn't thought it out it didn't make any sense, but evidently he didn't care. He must have thought that having a six hysterical (pun intended), dumb, but attractive women running around trying to kill each other would be enough.

The idea is that somebody is running a black market baby factory for rich clients by kidnapping pregnant women, removing their babies by cesarean section, and then having the bleeding, post-op mothers run around trying to kill each other to find out which one survives in the end. Presumably the surviving mom would have the best baby. (!)

Nothing in this movie is believable. This is not a supernatural thriller which requires a willing suspension of disbelief. It is impossible to believe the fantastic plot, or the motivations of the operators, or the behavior of the women once they find themselves on the loose in the facility. Everybody does exactly the opposite of what any rational human being would do in similar circumstances. This is awful; don't see it. Not even if it's the last movie on earth and you're bored to death. Better death than watching this sloppy, ridiculous excuse for a horror film.

It was not the greatest film. I just happened to be channel surfing & there, on TMC, was a 2010 film, The Clinic, starring Andy Whitfield. Needless, to say, Andy was not the star, but it was worth seeing him again. He was special and I shall always have a special place in my heart for him and his family. At least when I tuned in, it happened to be when Andy Whitfiled was on the screen. He had just been arrested & was in the police car. The policeman was a real piece of work. He was eating what looked like thick and long spaghetti noodles while he was driving. Andy was cuffed in the backseat and, in true Spartacus style, he got the policeman's gun, had him get out of the car & cuffed the cop around a tree out in the desert. Andy drove off & after finding out who had kidnapped his wife & where she was being held, as he approached what looked like a factory, the tires on the car were blown out by spikes across the road. It looked like Andy had met his demise. (I am not sure what happened because I fell asleep.) It was still worth seeing Andy again.

I had some high expectations about the movie. The central premise sounds intriguing and I was expecting some mind bending psychological thriller. Sure, those movies are now a dime a dozen but I still expected something more.

I understand why the male character was not able to stay for the rest of the movie. But maybe they could have hired another actor and reshot the scenes with him. That would have been better. There is so much buildup about the guy coming to rescue his wife and then it just ends. In a very lame sort of way. I was not satisfied with that.

The concept itself is problematic. The explanation didn't make sense and it seems like a lot of effort for nothing. Maybe you need a more diabolical reason if you have a big facility such as this. Also where are the thugs? We really don't see many people hired for managing so many women. It just seems strange that the head is so easily accessible as this. Generally in such movies, the head of the operations would be accessible only after a lot of bloodshed and lot of people dead. And not from some aggrieved mother either. We don't see any band of thugs or assassins or something.

There is a lot of predictability as well. Right from the beginning, we are shown that it is all mostly futile since they are watching anyway. So what's the point of all the tension and the violence? And then there is of course the ending with the protracted attempted murder of the lead female. The head is supposed to be a ruthless woman but she keeps the woman till last. For what reason, I am not sure. She could have been killed pretty much immediately after she supposedly "wins" the contest. The usual drama plays in the end again insulting the intelligence of the audience.

Maybe I am being a little harsh with the rating because I was not totally bored or anything. But it could have been so much better with the premise and instead it ends up like this.

My rating is 7 stars. This was a solid story with good acting, a good script and an engrossing plot.When I first saw the trailer, I didn't want to watch it. I was turned off by yet another woman snatched away from her doting lover flick. But once I started watching, I was hooked from the very start. The story had you wondering from the start to the very end and then there was a little twist. I love a good twist at the end of the movie - it was certainly unexpected and original. And then there was another little nugget that added to the positive close in an otherwise dark film. The movie wasn't overly gory, even though, there are scenes of bellies being ripped into. Overall, recommendation - you should watch this!

Its hard to stand watching this movie. Stupidity and ignorance leads to deaths of all but one of the mothers. In almost every scene the mothers do something ignorant and half witted. Written very poorly. I shut off the movie with about 15 minutes of it left. I couldn't stand the stupidity displayed. To think actual people would have brains the size of a walnut is not impressive. I could barely stand to keep watching the movie. I kept thinking this stupidity has to end soon. No one could ever be this stupid. Stumbling and falling into holes and running from wild dogs. Cutting themselves open to find out what color matches their baby. Why not take all the babies and do a dna test instead of killing other mothers to find out which baby is yours? Duh!