Phillipou twins from Adelaide's Pooraka drive water-filled car among YouTube stunts to film success in 2023
Twins Danny and Michael Phillipou in the water-filled Ford Laser for the 2019 RackaRacka YouTube prank. Bottom left: The car being switched on externally, with all its electronics on the outside, by a mechanic at Custom Imports at Lonsdale in Adelaide's southern suburbs.
Adelaide’s reputation as a car-mad city was taken into overdrive in 2019 by RackaRacka’s YouTube “car pool” stunt that also helped put them on the road to Hollywood film making.
RackaRacka – twins Danny and Michael Phillipou from the Adelaide northeastern suburb of Pooraka – added to their millions of followers around the world when they filmed their prank of driving through the Lonsdale Hotel bottle shop, where they bought beers, in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, in a car filled to the brim with water.
With friend Jackson O’Doherty, the twins wore swimming goggles as they drove the Ford Laser — a virtual fishbowl on wheels especially created over the previous two months by mechanics at Lonsdale business Custom Imports. The genius of the water-filled vehicle was that all electronics, including the starter button, were rewired to the outside of the car. After an initial effort sprung a leak, mechanics sealed the cabin to leave a sunroof as the only opening to enter and exit the vehicle.
The car had driver controls such as traffic inficators and horn working but Michael Philiopou was later charged by South Australian police for the stunt with offences including driving in a reckless or dangerous manner, driving an unregistered vehicle, driving without due care and failing to wear a seatbelt.
The RackaRacka YouTube channel had its first big hit with Harry Potter vs Star Wars, attracting seven million views in a week.and winning the best comedy and best overall categories at the 2014 Australian online video awards. In 2015, the channel won the award for best international YouTube Channel at the 6th Steamy Awards.
The channel was known for its intense live-action horror comedy videos, as well as those satirising McDonald’s mascot Ronald McDonald. Most videos contained graphic violence and sexual content that saw some flagged on YouTube and banned in several countries.
In 2017, Danny and Michael Phillipou revealed that they had moved into a mansion with their close friends, starting videos for a channel titled House of Racka, combining their real-life adventures and special effects skills into a vlog-like series. Due to lack of demonetisation on the main RackaRacka channel, the brothers in 2019 created a channel called Left on Red.
In 2020, the twins announced their feature-length directorial debut on a horror film called Talk to Me with Australian production company Causeway Films that made the The Babadook. Talk to Me had its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival 2022. After the picture received a midnight premiere screening at the renowned Sundance Film Festival, the Adelaide twins secured a deal with major New York City based film company A24 for North American rights toTalk to Me.
