☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Long Weekend (1978) – C. Eggleston
It’s the 1970s in
Australia. John Hargreaves and Briony
Behets are a married couple on the rocks. He thinks going camping for the long
weekend will help matters; she thinks not.
They go anyway – it’s a long dark journey to get there (from Melbourne
to a rural beach). On the way, they hit
a kangaroo. As they near the beach, driving
in circles perhaps, nature seems to close in on them, ominously. In the morning, they set up camp and continue
to have run-ins with nature on the first day; attacks include an eagle, a possum,
possibly a shark. All the while, the
couple shows no care for their natural surroundings: littering, chopping down
trees aimlessly, shooting a gun (and/or spear gun) randomly into the air or at fauna. Things get spooky and their relationship does
not improve. As a horror film, it may be
called Ozploitation but it also played the Cannes Film Festival and its
ambiguity takes it beyond the usual genre flick (see also Hitch’s The Birds).
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