Canberra’s dark comedy Snatchers brings body-snatching horror home for Halloween
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Irreverent, unsettling, and proudly local, horror-comedy Snatchers is the darkly witty collision you need this Halloween.
Set in a dystopian future following the story of two orderlies who turn to body snatching to make some extra cash, Snatchers isn’t your typical horror movie.
Blending black comedy with horror themes and social critique, when best friends Mac (Craig Alexander) and Fettes (Justin Hosking) steal what looks like the perfect black-market score – a young, healthy corpse known only as Jane Doe – only to have her wake on the operating table, what follows is a spiral of greed, fear, and survival.
As they struggle to contain a not-so-dead body, outwit the authorities, and wrestle with their own desperation, it asks the question ‘How far would you go?’ and throws audiences into a twisting horror full of biting satire.
Brought to the screen from the creative minds of filmmakers Shelly Higgs and her husband, Craig Alexander (who happens to also be the writer and star), Snatchers is loosely based on The Body Snatcher – the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
And while Shelly says that at first glance, the movie is simply a dark comedy about two men trying to sell a corpse’s organs, beneath the absurdity, the film’s comedy masks deeper social commentary.
“We wanted to look at how the working class bears the brunt of inequality but also look at the inherently toxic structures that keep the class divide there,” she explains.
“One of the really big things is you’ve got this woman, Jane, who’s representing that inequality, because she’s literally the one who’s been cut up, she’s been used as currency. We really wanted to use her as a symbol of exploitation, because women are still unequal in the world in which we live.”
The film was shot in Canberra and stars local actor Hannah McKenzie as the mysterious Jane Doe and also explores toxic masculinity, exploitation, and the fragile bonds of friendship. Infused with black comedy, Shelly says that she and Craig wanted to bring some balance to the film’s darker, more disturbing themes with some more humorous elements.
Explaining that their collaborative style naturally brings a sense of irreverence and lightness, Shelley says that Snatchers was over five years in the making before its world premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London in June 2025.
Hannah says the film offered a unique opportunity to dive into horror to explore a complex, shape-shifting character very different from her previous work. With credits including a world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in 2022 and a Septimus Award nomination in 2023, she was thrilled to come back to her hometown where it all began.
And while she says that she’s loved working on a horror set and is open to starring as a Final Girl in the future, Hannah says the real power of Snatchers (and the genre of horror as a whole) is its role in probing societal issues and anxieties.
“Monsters have always been a way that people have explored what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in their lives,” she says.
“The idea of monsters, the idea of horror, of being able to explore fear is a much healthier way than just pushing it down and pretending it doesn’t exist. That’s what art is for.”
Shot in five weeks with a predominantly Canberran crew – who also happened to be 50 per cent female – the city also plays a major role in Snatchers. With major scenes shot at the former HQThirtyFour (now Grainger Gallery’s event space) in Fyshwick and Narrabundah College, Canberra becomes its own character.
Aiming to support the local arts community and show that high-quality, creative work can flourish outside bigger cities like Sydney or Melbourne, Shelly says that local audiences will enjoy seeing familiar faces and locations on the big screen.
“Craig and I have dedicated our practice here – we both work professionally, and we’ve stayed in Canberra…We just wanted to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak.”
And while you’re never really told how or why Jane wakes up – if she’s a reanimated human, a zombie, or a goddess-like figure channelling collective female power and retribution – the ambiguous nature of her character only adds to the thrill of the movie.
“Snatchers is irreverent, unsettling, and proudly local,” says Shelly.
“It’s proof that Canberra artists can create cinema that resonates well beyond our city.”
Showing at Dendy Cinema on Friday 31 October as part of the Capital Film Festival, and set to be released at Limelight Cinemas in Tuggeranong in Canberra on Tuesday 11 December, this genre-bending black comedy will have you on the edge of your seat.
Images supplied.
