The Long Weekend (DVD)

...when DVDs existed solely in the minds of science-fiction writers, the only way to view films from somewhere other than Hollywood on a regular basis was to stay up late and watch them on the BBC. It was through those showings back in the early 1980s that I became aware of the refreshing phenomenon known by some as the Australian New Wave. The term basically describes a series of films made in Oz throughout the 70s and 80s that dealt with all manner ...
...Jack Thompson. Notable films include the eerie _Picnic at Hanging Rock_, a trio of unusual (but excellent) war films - _The Odd Angry Shot_, _Gallipoli_ and _Breaker Morant_ - and a few understated little gems such as _Sunday Too Far Away_, _The Riddle of the Stinson_ and an acerbic and enjoyable satire called _The Club_, a film about, of all things, Aussie rules football. But one Australian film in particular has stuck in my memory for being that ... more

Many many years ago, before videos became widely available and when DVDs existed solely in the minds of science-fiction writers, the only way to view films from somewhere other than Hollywood on a regular basis was to stay up late and watch them on the BBC. It was through those showings back in the early 1980s that I became aware of the refreshing phenomenon known by some as the Australian New Wave. The term basically describes a series of films made in Oz throughout the 70s and 80s that dealt with all manner of themes in a no-nonsense antipodean fashion and introduced us to some well-known directors and actors such as Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Mel Gibson, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson. Notable films include the eerie Picnic at Hanging Rock, a trio of unusual (but excellent) war films - The Odd Angry Shot, Gallipoli and Breaker Morant - and a few understated little gems such as Sunday Too Far Away, The Riddle of the Stinson and an acerbic and enjoyable satire called The Club, a film about, of all things, Aussie rules football. But one Australian film in particular has stuck in my memory for being that most unusual of things: a scary film I actually found scary. The film in question is a forgotten chiller called Long Weekend, first released in 1979. However, since I saw it years ago, and as memory can be notoriously unreliable, I ordered the DVD to find out if it really was as creepy as I remember it being.

Directed by first-time director Colin Eggleston, Long Weekend tells the story of a self-absorbed urban couple who decide to spend a few days camping at a remote beach in a last-gasp effort to save their disintegrating marriage. What starts as a routine weekend-break away from the city slowly develops into a full-blown nightmare as the bickering pair slowly fall victim to a mean and vengeful Mother Nature. All of a sudden the cosy comforts of the city seem a long way away. In the words of the film's screenwriter, Everett de Roche: "They invade the bush, and the bush deals with them."

Peter and Marcia (John Hargreaves and Briony Behets) are a couple on the brink. Marital infidelity on both sides, a terminated pregnancy and mutual distrust have left them at each other's throats. Peter decides that they should spend a few days alone together in order to sort themselves out, so he organises a camping trip to the coast. He is the classic weekend warrior: sports car and snappy suit during the week; macho toys and testosterone during the weekend. His chunky 4x4 contains a rifle, spear gun and axe and he wields all three with reckless enthusiasm when they hit the bush. Marcia, on the other hand, is none too keen on even setting foot outside the house let alone going camping in the bush. She's a jaded townie packed full of neuroses and she only agrees to the trip after much persuasion from her not-to-be-denied hubby. Fully packed, therefore, with gear (and grudges) aplenty, the pair set off.

But on the open road a tired and impatient Peter hits a kangaroo and from then on things begin to go awry. They get hopelessly lost in the woods en route to the lonely beach and are forced to spend an uncomfortable night in the Jeep, enveloped by a brooding malevolence. It is then that Marcia first hears a wailing far-off cry that begins to haunt her. They eventually reach the beach next morning and although things start off fine the oddness of their surroundings and the strange behaviour of birds and beasts slowly becomes alarming. The latent bitterness between the couple also slowly comes to a head and Marcia storms off back to civilisation, taking the 4x4 with her and leaving Peter and his dog alone and abandoned. Any more and I'd be giving too much away but it's safe to say that real horror awaits both of our urbanites.

Long Weekend is a film that relies on atmosphere and strangeness rather than schlock thrills to achieve its purpose and it's all the better for that. That's not to say that blood and violence are absent, but they are there simply to give relevance to scenes rather than be their raison d'être. Cold unease steadily builds as the film progresses yet we are never quite sure what the threat is or where it's coming from. We as viewers begin to vaguely suspect what is happening and why, but the couple, wrapped up as they are in themselves and in their own puny significance, most certainly don't. When they finally realise that all around is hostile and malevolent it just might be too late.

The dramatic conflict is simple, obvious and constantly signposted: the blundering couple trash all before them like a self-involved mini tornado, oblivious to the harm they're doing to the environment around them. Peter casually flattens the kangaroo on the highway; he hacks away obsessively at a tree with his axe; beer bottles are thrown idly away into the undergrowth and the water; and he blazes away with his rifle at what he thinks is a shark in the surf but which turns out to be a harmless dugong (a large marine mammal). The beast will come back to haunt him. Marcia is almost as bad: she zaps any creepy crawly she sees with insect repellent; and in a scene laden with symbolism she finds a curious egg and impatiently smashes it against a tree. Nature is watching and is intent on revenge.

The horror of the film is in the general feeling of unease that surrounds the couple, intensified by a spare-but-eerie soundtrack. The creepiness is palpable. Equally effective are the strange scenes that have no obvious place in the story but which unsettle: there is the camper van Peter finds down at the end of the beach, the inhabitants of which, seemingly nowhere to be found; their campsite, which Peter investigates later on, is like a blasted heath, and a frightened abandoned dog is found in the tent. Sometimes we view the bickering couple from the undergrowth, the camera dodging behind the flora whenever one of the two looks towards it; all around are eyes watching them. In a scene with Peter alone in the dark and huddled-up next to the fire the whole atmosphere is in the sounds we hear all around him, sounds emanating from hostile sources in the darkness. The culmination of that scene is the one truly-shocking moment in the film. Even the fate of Peter's dog - a fate only implied - is unpleasant to contemplate. All is designed to linger and unsettle.

Much has been made about a supposed environmental message delivered by this film. Some critics and commentators, always eager for a meaty metaphor to chew on, have waxed lyrically about how Long Weekend is an allegory of humanity's disrespect for nature, an old chestnut that has ripened again in these neurotic times of millennial angst. The long and the short of it, however, is that this film doesn't have a message. To quote Everett de Roche for a second time: "Long Weekend is not supposed to be a heavy environmental statement; it is just a very condensed way of saying that nature is capable of looking after itself if man gets too out of line." So there. He should know. It's a horror film, pure and simple.

And it's an excellent one. Like all good horror films the true effect is not in the brief jolts and jumps caused to the viewer but in what is implanted in the mind and which lingers long after. Films like Long Weekend only really work on first viewing but I enjoyed watching it again and the repeat performance was certainly worth it. It's a genuinely unsettling film that contains one of the best shock-moments I've ever seen, a moment I was expecting the second time around but certainly not the first. A mention should also be given to the real stars of the film: possums, roos, goanas, eagles, snakes, dugongs, ants, spiders and, last but not least, Tasmanian devils (the latter were obviously filmed in Tasmania although the film itself was shot in Victoria).

A modern remake of this film is currently on the festival circuit but a general release date doesn't seem to have been arranged as yet. The general opinion seems to be that it will turn up towards the end of the year. It will certainly have to go a long way to top the fantastic original. Catch the latter before its memory is obliterated for good. You won't be disappointed.

(This review was originally posted under the same username on dooyoo.co.uk)

 

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