Outback noir is such a thing in Australian fiction publishing as I write this review it's a genre all its own, but we don't see a lot of it on film (inasmuch as there aren't a lot of Australian films that break out).

But this one fits the definition as good as any movie you've seen – it has a slightly low life hero, grizzled and cynical but whose true motive is love, trying to do everything he can to get out of a hellhole in search of a better life (not 1930s LA in this case but the harsh deserts of South Australia).

It's hard to relate to Connor (Alexander Whitrow, who writes, directs and has people with the same surname all throughout the crew, revealing what a labour of love the movie is). Even though he's telling his girlfriend Lucy (Sarah Milde) he works out in the mines, he actually drives out to the same lonely bush highway every day, pretending to be broken down and robbing whoever stops to help when he flags them down.

He's just hoping to make enough to move them somewhere idyllic, away from their demountable home perched in the middle of nowhere, but Connor's chosen the wrong hunting ground – a stoic serial killer (Edward Boyd) is also operating in the area, and when the cops start looking for the car eyewitnesses have identified in the robberies, all the evidence points to Connor being the murderer.

He ends up in a cat and mouse game with the cops and the killer himself, trying to clear his name and save his skin with death and arrest closing in from every side, especially when he meets Lucy's family and her uncle is the police chief leading the investigating into the killings.

Whitrow evidently had on an oft-trod path to get the movie made, having the run of a rural property and shooting the film over the course of a couple of years. We've seen similar stories a hundred times before, and all that's left is to see if they can tell the story competently or whether there's an Ed Wood-level of ambition over talent.

The script is one of the strongest elements, with a really decent command of the cause and effect that drives the story, and for a guy/team who'd only made a few shorts until this movie, the direction is assured too, both well made for its own sake and full of awareness of the genre it's lovingly homaging and making its own.

The acting is a little wobblier at times, but you can see how much everyone believes in what they're doing, and as a performer Whitrow in the central role never loses confidence, even as he stretches his abilities.

Even while you're watching it you're aware of how much blood, sweat and tears they've obviously put into the project, and that gives it more kudos than it might otherwise have on its own merits, but thankfully it's also exciting, propulsive and well made enough to carry you the rest of the way.