Long Weekend

John Hargreaves and Briony Behets play Peter and Marcia, a couple who are on the rocks that decide to take a small vacation into the outback to see a very empty beach. Along the way they can’t stop arguing, and seem to think they’ve above everything as they treat nature like it was trash. They pollute, they run over animals, they hunt, they cut down trees, everything you can imagine. But soon it’s nature’s turn, and if there’s anything you don’t do, is fuck with mother nature.This movie has a big reputation and has become something of a cult classic over the years. It’s definitely one of the most famous Australian horror films of all time, mainly because of it’s execution of the nature-run-amuck theme. Now, to the film’s defense, there are positive aspects to the story. The two leads are very good at being the most unsympathetic assholes in the history of Australian cinema. From frame one, all they do is argue and bitch and moan, and it just escalates throughout the entire movie. The way they treat nature and the animals borders on the asshole to the unforgivable, and you really get to hate them with a passion. I also give credit to the filmmakers for keeping the plot very ambiguous. You don’t know if nature is truly taking it’s vengeance on these people, for all you know they’re just accident-prone. That’s a pretty clever thing to do and to pull it off well. Sadly, this movie is just not my cup of tea. The main problem I have is that it’s too long. Yes, at ninety five minutes, the film feels like it’s longer than Exodus, with its ridiculously slow pace and sequences where people are just listening to scary noises at night. The last fifteen minutes felt like the Chinese water torture. Also, the choice of animals on display here could have been different. We get shots of Tasmanian devils, koalas, kangaroos, and eagles with scary music, and I’m sorry, these animals are just not that scary. This type of stuff goes on throughout its entire running time and it just didn’t do anything for me. There are a lot of nature-run-amuck films that are good, like The Birds, Jaws and another Australian film, Rogue, but this one just didn’t do anything for me. It is, however, a well made film, and I would recommend it to all of you to make your own decisions. On a personal level though, I don’t think I’ll be seeing it again.