LONG WEEKEND (1978)

Film: I’m pretty sure I saw Long Weekend before I watched the amazing documentary about Ozploitation films Not Quite Hollywood by Mark Hartley. When watching the documentary I saw some bits of footage from the film and having it spark memories of seeing it. One thing I definitely remembered was Briony Behets, which is probably a reveal of my character more than anything. I was very thankful to that doco though as it brought this film (along with many other Australian films) back into my memory and I started actively pursuing them.

Special continuing thanks to Hartley for opening my eyes to the joys of cultural cringe!

I wanted to pick a film to review for the Australia Day weekend and the way my brain works is such: Australia Day, so it has to be an Australian film, and it’s a Long Weekend, so I guess now is as good a time as any to review this 70s classic, especially seeing how Umbrella Entertainment released this corker of a release as a part of their Ozploitation Classics collection (it’s number 12), and the fact that they kindly provided me with a copy.

Long Weekend was directed by Colin Eggleston, who directed Cassandra and Sky pirates, and was written by Everett DeRoche, who basically wrote everything in the cinema or on TV in Australia, including Patrick, Razorback and Harlequin.

Long Weekend tells of couple Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets) whose marriage is holding on by the skin of its teeth. Peter organises a weekend away, getting amongst nature and enjoying the beautiful Australian bush.

We soon discover that these two are awful people who don’t even have any respect for each other, let alone the Australian outback, polluting the environment not just with their rubbish and cigarette butts, but also with their acidic and poisonous attitudes and as all good mothers do, Mother Nature starts to defend her green leafed, four legged, swimming and flying children against these interlopers.

This film is such a character piece that it really hinges on the performances and Hargreaves and Behets and disturbingly good in their roles. Their entire interaction for the whole film is like being a kid and a friends house and watching their parents argue. There is a persistent discomfort for the viewer the whole time, and you get to the point where you even start anticipating the cringe which makes for an uncomfortable and alienating time.

This is to a deliberate effect, I think. I feel the feeling of being witness to these private moment, of being an intruder upon the dissolution of their relationship has bearing on them being intruders onto the outback setting. The difference though is that we are distinctly aware of our interloper status and that we don’t belong, whereas they believe themselves to be masters of the situation, and have no issue stomping on their surrounding, unconscious of the fact that everything they do is simply dreadful, ignorant and imposing.

The film is shot beautifully and the outback looks as exquisite and as dangerous as it should. It really is a lovely travelogue of the bush as long as someone from another country doesn’t assume that all Australians are like Marcia and Peter.

This is a great Australian film, and this package is fantastic also. umbrella have really included a lot of exciting extras in the package… speaking of which…

Extras: Blimey! This disc has an absolute SLAB of extras!

Before we get to the extras on the disc, this Umbrella Entertainment release of the film has 8 miniature lobby cards, and the soundtrack on CD.

2021 Interview featurette with Behets and Eggleston’s sons, Toby Reed and Sam Reed is an interesting look at the film but a confusing ‘arty’ production. Some great anecdotes about the film’s production though.

2021 interview with executive producer Richard Brennan sees him talk about his history and the production of Long Weekend.

Extended Not Quite Hollywood interviews with director Everett De Roche, Behets and cinematographer Vincent Monton. Umbrella continue to milk the brilliant cow that is the Not Quite Hollywood for content and why not? It’s bloody bonza, cobber.

New audio interview with Executive producer Brennan, which further discusses the film.

2004 audio commentary with Brennan and Monton discussing the production of the film with some great anecdotes about film production of the time.

Nature Found Them Guilty: Examining Long Weekend panel discussion with film historians Lee Gambian, Alexandra Heller-Nicolas, Emma Westward and Sally Christie. Fascinating analysis of a film hosted by Gambin (who tragically passed away since) that dives deep into the film. Honestly I watched it twice because of the cool books in the house where it’s filmed and I’ve added about ten book titles to my Amazon book list.

Stills gallery accompanied by an interview with Hargreaves. Normally I’m a critic of stills gallery but putting an audio interview over it makes it worthwhile.

Long Weekend remake trailer with commentary by director Jamie Blanks (director of the remake, as well as Valentine and Urban Legend)

Colin Eggleston trailer reel features trailers for Long Weekend, Nightmares, Innocent Prey, Sky Pirates and Cassandra.

Excerpt from Whitsunday Ash – the lost Colin Eggleston film is a short piece of footage from a 1990 fiom that unfortunately remained unfinished due to Eggleston passing away.

Theatrical Trailer – it is what it says.

Film: 7/10

Extras: 10/10

Rewatchability: 7/10

Long Weekend was provided for review by Umbrella Entertainment

THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

A Nightmare on Elm Street really opened my eyes to horror when I saw it at the cinema back in the 80s. I took one of my early teen dates to it in Sydney, she got a lift home with her dad and I had to catch the train home solo and then walk a good 40 minutes home from the train station so it made for a thoroughly scary experience for a mid teen boy.

What that night did though, was make me really look at directors and what they made, and a lifelong admiration for Wes Craven started then. I didn’t actually see this film until much later (along with Last House on the Left) but, and this kind of buries the lead, but liked it, and also started a love of that hillbilly horror subgenre of horror.

I have a special relationship with 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes insomuch that my second favourite movie poster of all time is the Italian poster for the film, and I have one hanging in my house next to my record collection, which I think is pretty damned cool.

The Hills Have Eyes tells of the Carter family, on holidays and making their way to California with a nice big caravan on the back of their vehicle. Unfortunately for them, they take a wrong turn, and end up in an area forbidden to public access.

After the car breaks down, Big Bob (Russ Grieve) and Doug (Martin Speer). They venture off in opposite directions leaving the family abandoned in the middle of the desert, and one of their dogs goes missing.

Doug returns but Big Bob has been captured by a mutant family living in the hills, and they set fire to him in front of his family before attacking the rest of them, raping, killing and kidnapping the baby.

Will Doug and the surviving family members be able to save the child… or even save themselves?!?

I like this movie mainly due to its theme which asks how far can you push a person until they snap, and maybe they response to pressure changes them permanently and in a way where they may not recognise themselves, and no longer like what they may have become.

I also admire the choice in making the hill people more like a force of nature, a natural disaster that descends upon a normal family who have to go above and beyond, both in inventiveness and ruthlessness to survive. Even down to their ignorance of the sanctity of human life may be revealed in the choices of names: Mercury, the god of travellers, trickery and thieves, Jupiter, the god of thunder, Pluto, the god of the dead and Mars, the god of war.

It’s almost like the cast were cast for two separate films and a calamity brought them together. The hill people are an extreme parody of what we city folk imagine hillbillies to be like, and the city folk are played completely straight. It makes me think of movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where the animated cast are so extreme they don’t seem to fit except for the fact that the story and the direction are so finely tuned to suit them both. That alienation is what makes these sorts of films so much fun, I suppose.

The location is such a character of this film as well. The dry, obtusely horrible terrain makes survival appear harder that what it could ever possibly be, and like Tobe Hooper’s visual eye for Texas Chainsaw Saw Massacre, one almost feels like they need to be rehydrated after spending anytime in the environment.

All in all, every hillbilly horror I’ve enjoyed, from Wrong Turn to Hosue of 1,000 Corpses can be tracked back to my enjoyment of this film. I probably dig the remake even more, but that might be for budgetary reasons, which allowed the mutants to be more mutated.

Disc:

Before I look at the extras on the disc, there are a few other extras in the slipcase edition of the film from Arrow Video. First there is a series of 6 postcards with movie posters for the film from all over the world… including my aforementioned Italian one. There is also a double sided poster of the film depicting two of the American posters, and finally, a small book with two essays, one by Brad Stevens and one by Ewan Cant, and a small blurb about the film’s transfer.

Now let’s look at the extras on the disc:

Looking Back at The Hills Have Eyes is a general making of style thing but it goes for a solid hour and has extensive commentary from Craven which is fantastic.

Family Business is a new interview with Martin Speer who played Doug, and he discusses his memories of the making of the film.

The Desert Sessions is a 2016 interview with composer Don Peake who wrote the score. He has some really nice recollections on Craven and how they approached the soundtrack.

Alternate Ending is an interesting curio but little more than that. I like the choice that was made instead,

I’m not sure who the Outtakes are for, but the filled up the disc?

Trailers and TV Spots features a U.S. trailer, a German trailer and some TV advertising.

Image Gallery which I’ll actually compliment for the first time as it is even MORE movie posters from the film!

Audio Commentaries, which are only available to watch with the ‘regular’ release of the film, and there are three of them, one with the cast, with with Wes Craven and Peter Locke, and finally, one with Mikel J. Koven. Having the three different commentaries in pretty amazing as it offers so much information from different points of view.

Film: 7/10

Extras: 9/10

Rewatchability: 7/10