Long Weekend (1978)

This film is regarded as Ozploitation.

Ozploitation (a portmanteau of Australia and exploitation) films are a type of low budget horror, comedy and action films made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian New Wave movement, and the Ozploitation style peaked within the same time frame (early 1970s to late 1980s). Ozploitation is often considered a smaller wave within the New Wave, "a time when break-neck-action, schlock-horror, ocker comedy and frisky sex romps joined a uniquely antipodean wave in exploitation (Thanks Wikipedia).

 

Quentin Tarrantino is interviewed quite extensively in the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!, as he is a big fan of Australian films like these especially from the 1970’s.

 

 

The plot is fairly simple, a couple and their dog, Cricket, (the couple barely able to contain their antagonistic, bitter relationship) go out for a trip to the beach, camping for a long weekend.

Peter pushes Marcia into going, but there’s obviously some deep rooted bitterness over something that has happened with their friends recently. Marcia doesn’t like the outdoors, and doesn’t want to be intimate with Peter. She also keeps hearing an unsettling noise throughout the night, like a baby’s cry. Soon it is revealed what the couple are fighting about, and Marcia just wants to go home.

 

From the beginning the couple show no respect for nature, Peter runs over a kangaroo (seen here a lot, very common unfortunately), ditches his cigarette butt into the bush and goes Rambo style shooting at ducks when they arrive for seemingly no reason. There is a sense of unease about the whole movie. They are the odd ones out in the environment but show it no respect.

The animals in the environment all stand up to the test of time for realism, though the eagle attack looked a bit dodgy. I had to laugh at the use of the Tasmanian devil, as they are not found in mainland Australia, only Tasmania. An Australian crew would know this, so I found this a strange choice. Although this film did do well internationally (but not at home), so most international audiences would not know what animal is native or not to particular regions of the country.

All in all though the animal attacks do not harm Peter or Marcia in any substantial way, but they create a sense of unease and adds to the realism of the situation. Are these attacks co-incidental or is nature fighting back?

Neither Peter nor Marcia is very likeable but we’re not really sure what we want to happen to them. Peter sees some fellow campers and then goes back to check on them the following day as he thought they were completely alone, but then that storyline and what has happened to those other campers doesn’t really get explained or investigated as much as it could.

The film has some problems, at times it felt very slow and we are forced to watch two characters for the majority of a movie who are hard to relate to in a traditional sense. In saying that though, their unlikeability was quite realistic in a sad sort of way.

All in all this was an interesting and in parts unsettling film. The last twenty minutes is devoid of dialogue and I honestly didn’t know how it was going to end.

The actors are good, as unlikeable as they were, and I did want them to get out of their long weekend hell.

A remake was made in 2008 starring an Australian actress and an American actor in the lead roles, but I haven’t seen it so can’t comment. I have an aversion to most remakes however, and the reviews I’ve read have not been unfavourable but most recommend sticking to the original as it just took the best parts from it.

Poor old Cricket, I like to think she survived. She was the only sweet character.