As an outsider looking at the island country over vast oceans and several time zones, Australia is a terrifying place. A melting pot cursed by its problematic treatment of native people, with venomous animals and unforgiving terrain, Australia often feels like a more dangerous, rowdy America.
For the past forty years, Australia's number one export has been Oscar nominated actors. This can be attributed to the Australian Cinema Renaissance of the seventies and eighties. Directors and production companies fostered powerhouse entertainers which also gave way to culturally significant horror, starting around the release of Peter Weir’s 1975 classic, Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Like I said, the landscape is scary enough without the added threat of a serial killer or ghost. It feels untamable and endless. While most other horror is situated in domestic spheres (the haunted house) and steeped in folklore, Aussie horror is often up against the coldest, baddest opponent of them all — nature.
There is a nihilistic flare to this kind of story, man vs nature, because nature always wins. Time overwhelms the hero even if we do not see it on screen. We all return to the ground, a usually drab thought but also nurtures artistic freedom and sick sense of humor. The inevitable can be delayed but it can never be overcome, so why linger in the stuffy, rigid, cyclical standards of most Western cultures? We don’t have time to hold up decorum or societal structures because the Outback does not care who you are!
This week’s picks exemplify that inevitability with a wink and a nod, and, sometimes, a full-bodied laugh.
Talk to Me (2023)
Lake Mungo (2008)
The Long Weekend (1978)
Killing Ground (2016)
The Loved Ones (2009)
Wolf Creek (2005)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)