The Dreaming (1988)

Well, ladies and gentlemen: we've finally made it to the Australian section of All the Haunts Be Ours, which incredibly boasts four selections total, which to my knowledge is more than any other territory represented therein (Actually, I think it's tied with the four British selections, so disregard.) Puzzling as this may be, as Australia isn't exactly well known for its folk horror tradition, this first selection has immediately set the bar rather high, as it's a cut above many of the other films we've come across so far and is impeccably crafted in every sense of the word. 

As in many of the films I've covered so far, The Dreaming makes use of real-world lore and specifically the beliefs and traditions of the Australian aborigines. The title is taken from the concept of Everywhen, which is an ancient, primordial Earth populated by ancestral humans that often possessed supernatural powers and abilities. As with Tilbury, this film takes these ideas and updates them, transposing them to the modern day, where our characters are visited by visions of their ancestors violently conquering natives and desecrating their land, women, and holy sites. The film even goes so far as to draw a parallel between this barbaric brand of colonialism and police brutality against minorities in the present. It's an uncompromising film with a lot on its mind, it's fair to say.

None of it would mean much though if it weren't so well made. Our lead is immediately easy to root for, as she is the only person in a sea of people who can't be talked into attempting to sweep under the rug the deadly beating of a teenage girl to death by cops. Between gaslighting from her employers, bullying from her boyfriend, visions of aborigines being slaughtered en mass by what appear to be Vikings (the film calls them simply whalers,) the untimely death of her mother, and a strained relationship with her father, we want nothing more than to see her succeed. Her relationship with her father is one of the things in particular that felt very intelligently handled. They are on rocky ground, but a shared connection to supernatural events causes them to begin to grow close again, just in time for things to reach a simmering boil that threatens to tear them apart once more.

The presentation of the film is nearly as good. You have real Australian scenery lensed by true professionals and the results are wonderful. The color palette is very natural but can certainly get vivid when it comes to certain memorable moments: you've never seen ocean blues this vivid before, which is great when your film spends most of its runtime on Kangaroo Island. My absolute favorite visual, though, would have to go to the Viking ghost ship. So it's an underappreciated film, visually, but its score is no slouch either, relying on timeless minor-key melodies and the medieval tones of sweet, sweet harp. It's just a class act all around. Performances are strong across the board, and everything just pops exactly as the writers, directors, and producers intended. Creepy, thrilling, and thematically rich, The Dreaming is a folk horror film that shouldn't be missed.