1971
Directed by Ted Kotcheff
Happy Halloween! I actually had fun sticking to a theme this month, so I think I will keep that trend going from now on. I won't spoil what I have planned for November, but rest assured, most of you will hate it. Now onto the last horror movie of October: the Australian version of Deliverance.
John Grant is a young schoolteacher who is unhappy to be stuck in the Outback for his teaching assignment. He plans to go to Sydney to see his girlfriend over the Christmas holidays. He plans to travel through a nearby mining town to get the airport, but ends up getting waylaid by the town's eccentric denizens.
This film is notorious for its footage of a very real kangaroo hunt, which is absolutely disgusting to witness even if kangaroos are basically velociraptors. In fact, it ruined the whole movie for me. What can I say, watching a real animal bleed and writhe in agony doesn't do it for me anymore (I'm a vegetarian so don't step to me).
Aside from that, I didn't find any of the characters to be too compelling. They were odd without having much charm, and too dull to be engagingly repulsive. The List is worse than I am at picking out good horror movies, and I sat through 1408.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
This movie was out of circulation for decades because the negative went missing. It finally resurfaced in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2004. Yay, my city is famous for something, besides putting french fries in a sandwich.
There are 107 occurences of somebody taking a drink. And I don't think it's pumpkin juice.
I sort of remember seeing this, certainly the gratuitous Kangaroo hunt, but I fear I've simply forgotten most of it. It was several years ago, and I've seen several other far too similar films since (such as Wolf creek, seen a day or two ago). Any of those films would be interchangeable, so therefor I can only assume this made it into the list purely.. no, make that mainly, because of the gruesome hunt scenes. These have given the film some sort of legendary status.. which is bad because that was probably why they put it in in the first place. Which in turn will only encourage an upward spiral of other 'let's put something controversial. yucky but memorable'.
ReplyDeleteOn a total side track...What's this about Pittsburgh claiming to have invented putting french fries in a sandwich?
I will claim that us Brits, specifically us 'oop north' Brits have had chip butties for... ages..
Well, stealing other people's cultural traditions and passing them off as our own is very American. And the term "chip butties" is very, very British.
ReplyDelete