Actor Matthew Sunderland specialized in burly, slightly menacing onscreen characters, typically in films produced in his native New Zealand. High-profile parts included that of Gustov the Strongman in Florian Habicht's surrealistic Brothers Grimm cinematization, Woodenhead (2003), and (as Sunderland's first major lead and his premier international crossover success) gun nut-turned-mass murderer David Gray in Robert and Steven Sarkies' visceral crime drama Out of the Blue (2006).