Death in Brunswick is a 1990 Australian black comedy/romance directed by John Ruane and starring Sam Neill, Zoe Carides, and John Clarke. It is based on the 1987 comic novel of the same name by Boyd Oxlade.
The story follows Carl Fitzgerald, a down-on-his-luck chef who takes a job at a seedy nightclub in Melbourne's suburb of Brunswick. There, he meets and falls for Sophie Papafogos, a young Greek-Australian barmaid. Carl's life takes a chaotic turn when he accidentally kills his drug-dealing coworker, Mustafa. In a panic, he enlists the help of his friend Dave, a gravedigger, to dispose of the body. Their misadventures lead to unintended consequences, including sparking a gang feud between the local Greek and Turkish communities.
Tropes in Brunswick:
- Accidental Murder: Carl's drug dealing Turkish-Australian co-worker, Mustafa, is beaten up by the Greek-Australian owners. Thinking Carl told them, Mustafa attacks Carl. Carl accidentally stabs and kills him.
- Alas, Poor Villain: When Carl reads in the paper that the Turks killed and decapitated Laurie and threw his body in a dumpster, he remarks that although he always hated him, he never wished him dead.
- Arranged Marriage: Sophie's father Mr. Papafagos has arranged her marriage to Yanni Voulgaris, the owner of he nightclub where she works. This all starts falling apart when she meets Carl.
- Batter Up!: Laurie grabs a baseball bat off one of the other bouncers and chases after Carl and Sophie even after Yanni tells him to let them go. He then tries to use it to take on the Turkish gangsters, which proves unwise.
- Cramming the Coffin: Dave's idea is that they bury the body in the opened grave of someone else whose husband will be buried above her the following day. Dave expects the coffin of the deceased to be comparatively empty, given how long it has been since she died. When he finds that the rate of decomposition is not what he expects, he begins to stomp and crush her body to make some room.
- Cut Himself Shaving: When Carl arrives home after his misadventure Cramming the Coffin, he is covered head to foot in mud and rotting corpse parts and stinks to high heaven. His horrified mother takes one look at him and demands to know what happened. His only response is a deadpan "I fell over".
- Deadpan Snarker: Dave. Being played by John Clarke, pretty much every word out of his mouth is pure snark. For example, when Carl is telling him about how he has fallen in love with Sophie:Dave: So when did you meet her?
Carl 'Cookie' Fitzgerald: Yesterday.
Dave: Oh, it's fairly serious, then. - Enemy Eats Your Lunch: In their first encounter, Laurie takes Carl's drink off him and drinks it in front of him.
- Falling into an Open Grave: Carl panics when left alone in the cemetery and goes looking for Dave. While wandering, he falls into an open grave, which turns out to be the one Dave was looking for so they could dispose of Mustafa's body.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Averted along with Soft Glass. A man smashes an empty beer bottle on the bartop and gets a hand full of broken glass for his trouble.
- Groin Attack: Dave sucker punches Laurie in he groin when he takes the money had Yanni had just given Carl. As Laurie is gasping on the floor, Dave takes the money back and tells Laurie he should keep his hands off things that don't belong to him.
- Interrogation by Vandalism: When the Turks are interrogating Carl to find out what happened to Mustafa, one of them takes Carl's RayBan sunglasses and crushes them.
- "Last Supper" Steal: After his domineering mother suffers a stroke and is left a quadriplegic, Carl marries Sophie, despite her father's protests and the final scene from their wedding is reminiscent of the Last Supper.
- Molotov Cocktail: The Turkish gang uses a Molotov cocktail to firebomb the nightclub, which Carl gets blamed for as Laurie sees him running away from the club.
- Mourning Apparition: Carl leaves his job and is later comforted when he sees Mustafa in the church (albeit, in a dream) who offers him a friendly handshake.
- My Beloved Smother: Carl's domineering mother has moved him with him—supposedly only for a week—and is making his life hell.
- Off with His Head!: The Turks kill Laurie in retaliation for Mustafa's death and leave his headless body stuffed in a dumpster.
- Punk in the Trunk: Dave and Carl dump Mustafa's body in the boot of Dave's car so they can transport it to the cemetery to dispose of it by Cramming the Coffin.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: The Greek and Turkish dialogue is not translated. Occasionally, such as when Mustafa's wife visits the nightclub after he disappears, another character will translate what they saying into English.
- Revenge Is a Dish Best Served: After Laurie orders Carl to make a pizza for Yanni and his cronies, Carl cooks them a pizza topped with dead cockroaches and mouse droppings. All of them compliment Carl on the pizza, although Laurie remarks that he had asked for no 'olives'.
- Slut-Shaming: Sophie is a repeated victim of this; being called a slut by both her fiance and her father, with her father going so far as to threaten to kill her if she brings further shame to the family.
- Spiteful Spit: Yanni calls off his Arranged Marriage with Sophie and tells Carl that he can have her before spiting in her face as she and Carl leave the club.
- Suspiciously Specific Sermon: Carl attends church with his mother and the priest delivers a sermon on forgiveness; even going so far as as to specifically mention how God will forgive murder and how we will meet the dead again in Heaven. This causes Carl to see a Mourning Apparition of Mustafa, the man he accidentally killed.
- Talk to the Fist: When Carl first meets Sophie's father Mr. Papafagos he starts trying to explain about ruining her Arranged Marriage and his plans to marry her himself. He is partway through saying "Don't think of it as losing a daughter but as gaining a son" when Mr. Papafagos punches him in the face. Carl is still wearing a neck brace during the wedding.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Carl spikes his mother's tea with some of her prescription medication in an attempt to murder her, butt he has a change of heart before he gives it to her.
- Villainous Rescue. When Carl is stuck on top of a barbed wire fence and at the mercy of Laurie who is coming for him with a baseball bat, he is saved by the arrival of the Turkish gangsters, who—due to Carl's earlier lie—believe that Laurie is the one who murdered Mustafa.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: When Dave and Carl are moving Mustafa's body out of the club, Carl stumbles away behind Dave's car to throw up.