The Long Weekend
| Year: | 1978 |
| Studio: | Australian Film Commission |
| Director: | Colin Eggleston |
| Producer: | Colin Eggleston |
| Cast: | John Hargreaves |
When this movie came out, it undoubtedly sunk like a stone. In today's DIY, movie cult-obsessed age it's the sort of thing just waiting to be discovered.
I saw it on TV by accident one night and wasn't as enamoured as the cult fanboys would be, expecting a broad horror story rather than the esoteric, enigmatic thriller it turned out to be.
A couple travel to the beach for a long weekend of drinking, camping and relaxing. There's an unspoken hatred between them, as if they're embarking on the short holiday to apply salve to a recent betrayal in their marriage.
They arrive and immediately want to get out of each other's faces, each one abusing nature in their own way, shooting animals and mistreating their surroundings.
If the point of the movie is that nature fights back consciously (like M Night Shyamalan's imaginative but flawed The Happening) it isn't very clear. Horrible and eerie things start happening, and neither the pair nor the audience ever quite learn why. The film is more an exercise in fear and tension than a plot.
I saw it on TV by accident one night and wasn't as enamoured as the cult fanboys would be, expecting a broad horror story rather than the esoteric, enigmatic thriller it turned out to be.
A couple travel to the beach for a long weekend of drinking, camping and relaxing. There's an unspoken hatred between them, as if they're embarking on the short holiday to apply salve to a recent betrayal in their marriage.
They arrive and immediately want to get out of each other's faces, each one abusing nature in their own way, shooting animals and mistreating their surroundings.
If the point of the movie is that nature fights back consciously (like M Night Shyamalan's imaginative but flawed The Happening) it isn't very clear. Horrible and eerie things start happening, and neither the pair nor the audience ever quite learn why. The film is more an exercise in fear and tension than a plot.