S02E03 - Divine Intervention : Mai Te Hohonu (2002)

Director Robin Walters
Writers Michael Bennett, Bradford Haami
Starring Pio Terei, Whetu Fala, Glynnis Paraha, Alvin Fitisemanu, Kate Sullivan, Antonio Te Maioha
Genre Demon
Tagline The quivering
Country

Talk us through it

Tama drives a taxi in small town rural New Zealand and has it pretty sweet. His cab is the only one available locally so he can pretty much act like a slob, not bother with actually cleaning his car, and treating customers like an Asian help desk worker. In other words when the flash new cab driven by Samoan immigrant Sole shows up his business is going to take a major hit. Companies in Australia like TPG should take note of this, your service sucks and you are going to be in the sights of anyone able to offer a competitive package wrapped in a service orientated approach. But hey I digress, everyone knows TPG sucks you want to hear about the episode of Mataku in question.

Seems Tama is descended from chiefs of his Iwi and has in his possess a book of spells, including how to summon a Taniwha (explained later). With his "loyal" customers disappearing quicker than Paris Hilton's fan base Tama summons the Taniwha to rid him of his business competitor. Guess Tama should have asked how that was going to happen and what the price would be prior to evoking the spell.

Ready to get fishy with it?

Review

"Aunties take a look around. Being chief doesn't pay the rent. Nobody cares about that stuff anymore" - Tama

Guess it's learning time again, bogans can jump to the next paragraph. The term "taniwha" is widely held to mean water demon in New Zealand, but depending on Iwi can denote plant, fish, shark, or shadow in the water. In general terms the Maori viewed it as a sort of spiritual guardian of the land that lived in certain rivers or streams. If you wanted to cross a taniwha inhabited water course you would need to either defeat the spirit or pay him for services rendered. If you didn't, well the taniwha had a habit of eating people.

Director Robin Walters opens his episode with a prologue piece that I guess is meant to get across the notion that a taniwha isn't your local aquatic equivalent of Dorothy the Dinosaur. A dude is down by a river reading, ironically a fishing magazine, as he tosses a stick into the river for his dog to fetch. I was immediately reminded of a similar scenario in Spielberg's Jaws, though from memory there wasn't a fishing magazine involved there. Naturally the dog becomes our first victim, and Walters underlines this by some blood in the water and the now empty dog's collar suddenly popping to the surface.

The magazine indicates the fact that the episode is going to be of the tongue in cheek variety with a leaning toward comedy/horror rather than an out and out excursion to scareville. Notably Director Walters has his underwater photography down pat, with a murky vision indicating something is lurking. Very much matched the underwater shots used in Carey Carter's The Fishing Trip: Te Hi Ika.

Robin Walters delivers a much better demonic summoning in a light hearted way than Sam Raimi's latest "by the numbers" outing can hope to conjure up.

Walters immediately switches to a camera at ground level pointing up to the taxi from hell, or at least a commuter's worse nightmare. Tama is going about his daily business, which currently is driving the comic relief, his aunties Heti and Peti, to their destination. Get ready for the first of a constant string of Tama haemorrhoid references as the episode threatens to descend into out and out farce. We quickly learn Tama smokes in his taxi, leaves customers waiting, and by the look of things thinks personal hygiene is something those big city pakeha fellas concern themselves with. Surprisingly there's something likable about Tama, though putting your finger on what that element is remains elusive.

Enter the dragon, oops not yet, the Samoan taxi driver Sole with his flash new car and service orientated ideas. Tama naturally can't compete against this show of Island politeness and one dark night summons the local Taniwha. You get the feeling that summoning a water demon is probably not going to be a good idea with a whole "who pays the ferryman" vibe going down. To avoid spoilers, Tama has a teenage daughter Ripeka who can put her heart into the Taniwha payment plan, no discounts offered.

While we are focused on summoning demons, demonic rampages, and ultimate Faust deals of a sort, Director Robin Walters keeps things light hearted. There isn't strong winds and the anguish of hell going down here as the Taniwha is summoned and then conducts it's side of the agreement. Walters keeps it to a fishy aroma as the demon makes a number of appearances. We even get a Freddy Krueger one liner as the water demon hits the Sole out of business sweep stakes. This isn't to say that Walters can't hit the atmosphere and tension toward the end of the episode, but even then it's a light heartened approach at odds with the actual content and premise.

Writers Michael Bennett and Bradford Haami do hit the "once were warriors" theme, disappearance of traditional Maori culture in a Pakeha world, but mix it up with a Christian style morality play based around the old horror sawhorse of "be careful what you wish for". Not entirely sure the writers weren't influence by Western vampire myths as well, but not that up on taniwha legend and lore to make a call there.

Pio Terei (Tama) was an excellent casting choice and delivers on the "she'll be right" character who doesn't believe in his own heritage. Terei nails it, and as previously stated adds an undefinable quality to his character that get's you on side. Whetu Fala (Heti) and Glynnis Paraha (Peti) score with the comic sidebar and have their Falstaff credentials on the table, comedic and otherwise. Alvin Fitisemanu (Sole) is the first Samoan to appear in the franchise and was a welcome inclusion.

Kipa Royal and Frank Marinthe deliver a fun score that matches the light nature of the episode and adds to the overall fun times we are having. Kipa Royal also delivers the amusing "Haere Mai - Everything is Ka Pai" over the closing credits. Miguel Fuentes provided additional instruments as required.

Summary Execution

I've been waiting approx ten episodes for an outing involving a taniwha and finally I got one delivered in Divine Intervention. Heck it took Primevil two seasons to hit a raptor so not calling a foul here. Wasn't quite expecting the comedy I got during the episode but in the end it won me over as Mataku decided to take a break from the more heavy "take no prisoners" approach it had been throwing on my screen previously. Divine Intervention did deliver the tension when required, though what the heck was the spear for?

Have sent an email Aro Video's way to see if they have any news on season three, running out of episodes here people.

If you don't mind a slight bit of comedy in your horror mix then dive on into the waters of Divine Intervention. A good solid episode that mixes Maori belief with Pakeha themes, the episode rocks along. Hire Tama's taxi and see what he has in the book.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...

Solid comedy/horror episode that is worth hunting out.