Richard Wolstencroft's The Debt Collector

Cody checks out an Australian action thriller.

Francis Vaughan, call him Frank, was the son of Irish parents who moved to Australia when he was young and then, unfortunately, were killed in a car accident. Frank grew up in a Catholic orphanage, where he was preyed upon by predator priests. Once he reached adulthood, he went off to Ireland, but only ran into more bad situations there. So now he’s back in Australia. And he’s out for revenge.

Calling himself a debt collector, Frank tracks down all of the priests and other shady characters who tormented him when he was a child and he makes them pay for what they’ve done. With their lives. Along the way, he happens to save the life of a stripper named Sarah, who was being kept captive by one of his victims – and Frank getting close to Sarah opens the door for him to continue collecting debts from bad people, now ones that he doesn’t have a personal connection to. Of course, Frank and Sarah can only carry on this spree of vigilantism for so long before they catch negative attention. That comes when they torture and kill one particular scumbag who happens to be the brother of a criminal kingpin.

That’s when Frank and Sarah get gangsters, neo-Nazis, and a visitor from Ireland – a terrorist turned author (he prefers to call what he did urban warfare rather than terrorism) – on their trail.

The Debt Collector was obviously made on a minuscule budget, so viewers shouldn’t expect to see any epic action sequences when Frank and Sarah are getting their revenge or when they’re fighting for their lives, but there are plenty of violent moments spread out across the film’s 90 minute running time, including a pretty cool shootout or two, and things move along at a quick pace. There’s so much vengeance packed into the early minutes that some may start wondering how writer/director Richard Wolstencroft and co-writer Matthew Clayfield could possibly get this story to sustain a feature, but they keep it going with twists and turns and nasty characters. Its downfall with a lot of viewers will be the ending, and I have to admit that I found it to be quite disappointing myself. Wolstencroft is trying to make a point and live up to an popular quote, but in doing so he gave his film an ending that will leave some viewers wondering why they bothered to spend their time watching the movie in the first place.

A solid cast was assembled to bring the characters to life, with John Brumpton and Kristen Condon turning in good performances as Frank and Sarah. One of the main villains is played by prolific character actor Andy McPhee and another shady fellow is played by the Australian legend Roger Ward, who may be best remembered internationally for his role as Max’s boss Fifi in the original Mad Max.

Although Wolstencroft has a filmmaking career that goes back more than 30 years, this was my first time crossing paths with one of his works, and I was impressed by what he did with it. The Debt Collector is an interesting action thriller, and if you would like to check it out, it’s available on YouTube Movies, Vimeo on Demand, Google Play, DVD, and Blu-ray. Just be warned: you probably won’t like the ending.