Australian horror is not something I could claim to have seen much of, I like Hollywood have been fixated on the Asian market, although a lot longer before they picked them up for remakes. However I hadn’t cast an eye to Australia, and perhaps now is the time with the Australian made horror Wolf Creek showing up at the Sundance Film Festival (yes, there’s a lot of good material in that article) over at Rope of Silicon.
The Sundance writer Trever Groth talks of the movie:
“What sets Wolf Creek apart from other thrillers is its craftsmanship. Instead of relying on archetypes and predictable formulas, writer/director Greg Mclean meticulously fashions three-dimensional characters, utilizing exceptional performances and an intelligently structured script. Mclean’s cinematic approach more closely resembles the Dogma filmmakers than any “slasher” directors. His ultrarealistic style creates an intimate climate, heightening the terror to unsettling levels. The result is a shocking new breed of horror film.”
That really does sound interesting, a horror that’s concentrating on the characters and performances without the slasher-esque scares and murders. I, for one, am definitely interested in seeing this movie.
man wolf creek i saht ma pants jus watching da 1st scene…MMADmy advice c it whilst u can
Just wanted to let everybody out there know that there really are some great Australian films out there. But, as Richard posted, they are internationally unknown. But there are a few I have to recommend to you all. Some of the greatest Aussie flicks to date are Two Hands, One Perfect Day and Galipoli. I recommend you all check them out.
Actually the local industry is in a terrible slump just now. 2004 was the worst year for Australian films at the box office since the rebirth of the industry in the 1970s, and only about 15 films were released in ’04 (as opposed to the 30-odd per year we were averaging in the mid-90s). Cate Shortland’s Somersault was a pretty big arthouse success and scored pretty much all the awards at the Australian Film Industry awards night, but it was widely agreed that was less on account of the film’s actual qualities than it was because it had no real competition.
To be honest I see very little local product because so little of it sounds appealing to me. If I worked as a professional reviewer I’m sure I wouldn’t have any choice in the matter; as an amateur reviewer for community radio, I can generally limit myself to what I want to see, and so many trailers I see for Australian films make me just want to run a mile from them. I think it’s generally considered, though, that Australian cinema has been on a downward slide for some time. There’s some really good short film-makers in this country (I know, cos I was one of the judges in the Kaleidoscope short film festival two years ago and got to see some pretty interesting work that way), but relatively few seem to be able to pull off a feature film.
It’s a shame if there’s not much of a market of Horror down there, I’ve seen some fabulous foreign horrors before from some exceedingly unlikely places. Well, at the time, a lot of them are now remade or in production by Hollywood!
I’ll say exactly what I did on the Manila Film Festival post – tell us what you would recommend out of the Aussie film industry, then we can go see them!
Probably the reason why you’ve never seen much Australian horror is that there’s very little of it to see. A film like Undead is a complete aberration in the context of the local industry in many respects, not least of which is that it was a zombie movie.
Personally, unless there’s something supernatural going on, I don’t count serial killer film as “horror”, so I wouldn’t be adding Wolf Creek to the Oz horror canon anyway.