Dying Breed (2008)

The noble search for a dying breed leads an ambitious zoologist to the discovery of a far more sinister species in this brutal Australian shocker featuring Leigh Whannell (Saw) and Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek). Eight years ago, Zoology student Nina (Mirrah Foulkes)'s sister was searching for evidence of the elusive Tasmanian Tiger when she suddenly vanished without a trace. Before disappearing, however, she did manage to send her sister a mysterious paw print that seemed to suggest that the species was still flourishing somewhere in the vast Australian wilderness. Much like the Sasquatch, the Tasmanian Tiger is a creature that modern scientists have dismissed as legend - but now that Nina has evidence, she's fully prepared to breach Tasmania's dense and dangerous forests in order to prove that the reclusive creature really exists. As Nina, her partner Matt (Whannell), his old friend Jack (Phillips), and his girlfriend Rebecca (Melanie Vallejo) make their way deep into the heart of Tasmania, it quickly becomes obvious that Nina is completely ignorant to one of the isolated island's darkest legends. Back in the 19th Century, when Australia was a barren penal colony, a dangerous convict named Alexander Pierce (aka "The Pieman"), staged a daring escape from the island's most heavily guarded prison. Later, in order to survive, Pierce resorted to eating his fellow escapees. Though Pierce would be hung for cannibalism in 1824, by the time he was captured it was already too late. Pierce had bred, passing on his insatiable appetite for human flesh the next generation. Nearly two centuries later the Tasmanian Tiger seems to have finally become extinct, though the Pieman's lineage is still going strong. Now, in a land where human meat is scarce, Nina's expedition will fall prey to species with a savage appetite, and a murderous motivation to keep their bloodline strong. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi