Long Weekend (1978)
Our two main characters, of which there are few in this film, are both extremely unlikable and repugnant from the very minute they first appear onscreen. From the moment our 'hero' pulls into his own driveway only to crash right into a van that by rights he should have anticipated, you know he's a careless moron with little sense, and then there's his wife: a cold woman who at one point tells her husband to "Get fucked!" in those exact words when he tries to make innocent conversation with her. Hubbie starts the bush on fire when he carelessly flings a lit cigarette from his car, disregards and disrespects signage warning him against trespassing, takes aim at his wife when testing out his new rifle scope, runs over a poor innocent crab when driving around on the beach, and worst of all, hits a kangaroo with his car, and then seeing that no one is around and his wife is still asleep, he just guns it and runs all the way over the poor thing. Before long, he's shot a mother dugong who he mistook for a shark and both he and his awful wife become haunted by the sounds of baby dugongs crying out to their mother for the rest of the film. Oh, and just in case you think the wife is guilty only of being generally unpleasant, she commits probably the most wanton and spiteful crime in the film: smashing an eagle's egg. Somehow even worse, she smashes it in response to its mother attacking her only a moment prior. You moron!
Needless to say, these two are perfect for one another. Their backstory is probably the weakest aspect of the film because its so alien from most domestic situations, but I guess I can believe it of such repulsive people. From what I gather, Hero became infatuated with his neighbor's wife, and so to facilitate the affair, he tries to initiate a sort of wife swap situation and long story short: his wife got to have a fun new experience, while he got nothing, as Neighbor's wife didn't like him all that much. And to make matters worse: Hero's wife became pregnant afterwards, and unsure of whose it was, terminated the pregnancy. So you see, the smashed eagle eggs and weeping dugong babies don't just represent human intrusion on nature, no, no; they're also part of this everpresent motif of the rejection of motherhood as well. Clever. And you thought this would be just another dumb slasher movie with cute cuddly animals.
No, in the vein of Let's Scare Jessica To Death, this film is surprisingly dedicated to ambiguity and subtlety despite its low budget, which is usually where the trashiest and shlockiest stuff tends to show up in cinema. I mean, I guess it makes sense for films with little money to focus on their narrative, but that's not usually the way it works out. Without cheating you of great horror film moments and/or little bursts of violence, this film presents a narrative that can totally be handwaved away as "Husband and wife went crazy, killed each other, THE END" with zero regard to any supernatural forces or influence, which I love when it's done as well as it is here. And though I don't exactly buy this version of events, nor believe the filmmakers did either, it's an approach that makes the horror far more impactful than something a little more tangible. You're left with all these clues: the ...Blair Witch... moments where they go straight in one direction and keep looping back to where they started, the abandoned campsite they find with a lone dog wearing a pet collar taking up residence there, the waterlogged car, and the odd way the locals behave when Hero brings up Lunda Beach. Whether you care to piece them together and interpret them will determine whether or not you care for this film, more than likely.
Going back to the Hitchcock comparisons, I was surprised by how Hitchcockian it really was simply because of the way the film wielded suspense. It comes across as deliberately old-fashioned. The whole thing is dripping with atmosphere, and it feels like the threat can come from anywhere at any time. The film takes its time building up its the wilder (no pun intended) moments, and those moments are all the better for it. The creepiest bit in the film is when our leads discover the remains of previous visitors to Lunda Beach, and just when things seem especially dangerous, the corpse of a dugong, partially buried and fast decaying, begins to wiggle its limbs...
And the last thing I want to say about it is that the foreshadowing is super rich and a sign of the level of talent it was conceived with. Every moment is hinted at some point earlier in the film, and while some of them are fairly easy to spot the first time through, some of them are more devious: like Hero's poetic fate, for instance. It all leads to one of the best endings for a film ever before seen: it's both a perfect send-off that was surprisingly hilarious as well. I just had to rewind it a few times before I could move on with my life, needless to say. It was extremely satisfying to watch.
Long Weekend is a film that survives on its great script, but it wouldn't be nearly as great if it weren't for the almost-as-brilliant direction. Come to think of it, that ending would be nowhere near as funny without the tack-sharp editing, either. Visuals are grainy and naked, but shots of natural beauty are impressive and transcend the film's budgetary limitations. The score is very obviously inspired by John Carpenter's work on Halloween, but hey, what isn't? The icy stings and stabs are much more prominent here than in Halloween, and it only really becomes melodic during the calmer, sweeter moments of natural bliss. Speaking of the audio, shoutout to whoever came up with the idea of using the cries of baby dugongs as the defacto sound of mother nature weeping deserves a prize. But perhaps most importantly, the cast should be congratulated for so convincingly bringing to life such horrible people, whom are so much fun to hate.
In closing, I'm now looking into other films from these guys, as I considered this little folk horror a true gem and it certainly left me hungry for more like it. I only have one last thing to say before I wrap up, and that's that Synapse Films should be ashamed of themselves for selling this boutique blu-ray for $30 and not including subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing but hey, I guess it's no skin off your backs if people struggle to enjoy your product, as you'll already have their money by the time they discover what you've done. I only enjoy subtitles as a means of catching every single scrap of info from every film I watch, and I was disappointed to see them missing here.
But yeah, anyone interested in a horror film that's made with real craft, yet doesn't skimp on raw shocks, ought to enjoy Long Weekend. I know I did. And unlike Wake in Fright, another Australian folk horror, this one doesn't include any real animals being killed!
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