Long Weekend (with Joe Lipsett)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Movie Oubliette, the film review podcast for movies that most people have mercifully forgotten.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Dan and I'm Conrad and in each episode we drag a forsaken film out of the Oubliette,

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_02]: discuss it and judge it to decide whether it should be set free

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_02]: or whether it should be thrown back and consigned to oblivion forever.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_04]: Movie Oubliette, Movie Oubliette, Movie Oubliette, movie review the films others tend to forget.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Come with us and open up the Movie Oubliette.

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to episode 156 of Movie Oubliette, the tri-continental podcast for forgotten fantastical

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_03]: films with me, Conrad, watching too much Olympics in Cambridge, UK.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah and me Dan, I was going to say the same thing,

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_06]: in the Olympics down here in Melbourne, Australia.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, how could we not be? We focus on forgotten fantasy, sci-fi and horror films because we love

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_03]: getting lost in the wilderness, hostile possums and ominous howls in the middle of the night.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it's my dream. I do love a good camping trip.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it's my absolute nightmare. So this episode should prove interesting.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_03]: So you're watching the Olympics, Dan. Yeah, yeah, I don't watch sport at all.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_06]: No, me neither. Normally, but the Olympics and

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_06]: the Football World Cup I tend to watch. So any favourite events that you've watched so far?

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_06]: Well, I always loved the tennis. Yeah, yeah, I always watched the sort of lesser

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_06]: events. So I watched the trampoline gymnastics, which was amazing. Just so much artistry.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_06]: And also the UK one, the female event, Briony Page. And yeah, it was a stellar performance.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_03]: It was, yeah, I love it. Yeah, Lady from Dorset. She was great, wasn't she?

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_03]: 33 years old and she trounced everybody. Yeah, I know because they're always so

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_06]: young in the gymnastics. A lot of teenagers, a lot of sort of young upstarts. But when you

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_03]: a lot, but I'm not sure that's just because of the artistry.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_03]: I watched the synchronised diving. It's really interesting. It's such a fascinating event.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I do love it when somebody's got everything on the line and they fall off.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, belly flop. Yeah.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_06]: All right, I guess we should move on to the mailbag. What have our listeners been saying?

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, they've been getting sucked into our previous episodes, Dan.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Damsel in the Dollhouse said on Shallow Grave, so excited for your review. I saw this film many

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_03]: moons ago and absolutely loved it. It's such a fun dark comedy with a truly horrible set of

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_03]: characters that I can't help but adore. My favourite scene has to be the splurging on toys

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_03]: montage, which convinced me that Ewan McGregor was going to end up being a movie star.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I'm still baffled by the things they spend the money on.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I know. Surely you should buy cars, right? Not toys.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And lipstick. I don't know what's going on in that scene.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Paul Anderson got in touch about Equilibrium. He said, I blinking love this film. It's so

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_03]: bombastic. The comparisons to The Matrix are a little unfair. While released a few years

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_03]: after it was being made around the same time and got caught up in distribution hell,

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Gunn Carter was quote unquote refined in the later Ultraviolet, according to the director.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_03]: But it just looks more fun here and less CGI. It would have fallen dead if it did not have

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_03]: the acting chops at play. But as it is, it gets regular viewing from me. Glad it was set

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_06]: free. Yeah, that's a good point about the acting chops. Yeah, it would have definitely

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_06]: disappeared if the acting was so par. Yeah, I think Christian sells it quite a lot.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_03]: And of course we heard from Serge of Cold Crash Pictures. Hello, Serge.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Hello, Serge. He said, I'm torn on

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Equilibrium. On the one hand, it's a deeply silly reactionary dystopia film that doesn't

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_03]: anything new besides three to four scenes of Gunn Carter. But it's also not like a bad

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_03]: version of what it's trying to be. Is that worth the recommendation? I don't rightly know.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_03]: But even in high school, I knew this was like a fifth grader's understanding of fascism.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_03]: But I still don't think it's bad so much as not for me. In the end, I think

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm as torn as the final verdict of movieobliate.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know, it is very much a product of its time.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but thanks for writing in everybody. We always love hearing from you.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, yes we do. All right, Conrad, let's move on to the movie for today.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be chosen by our special guest joining us today,

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_03]: distinguished film critic, co-host of the Horror Queers podcast, and my co-host on

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_03]: YouTube reaction channel, the Queer Gaze. It's returning champion, Joe Lipsit. Hello,

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: thank you so much for having me back and I hopefully have bought a film that you will enjoy.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Hope so. Have you been watching the Olympics?

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I have. Yes, it was actually very hard to just listen to the two of you talk about it

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_01]: because I wanted to chime in so badly. What's your favorite event to watch?

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I will confess that I do watch the diving for many of the same reasons I suspect Conrad does.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh. But my husband is a big fan of the track and field, so we've been watching a lot of that

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_01]: in the back half as well. I don't know, I get so anxious when everything is on the line.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't watch hurdles because I'm terrified that someone is going to trip over them

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and then their Olympic dream is just done in a split second. It's harrowing.

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_06]: It's a lot on the line. Yeah, I was watching pole vaulting yesterday and it's just like

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: grueling. The drama.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And meanwhile, the rest of us are just sitting on the couch eating snacks, right?

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_03]: You're barely able to bend down and pick up something off the bottom shelf in the supermarket.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I pulled something getting out of bed this morning.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's not good. So would you like to fetch us a movie, Joe? I think you are

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_03]: qualified to go into the oubliette. Oh yes, I'd love to. Okay,

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: just going to keep going down this road about 100 yards. Oh wait, I think I

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: recognize that tree marking. Wait, maybe I'm going in circles because I keep ending back

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: the same place. Oh, oh, there's a dead sea cow. Oh, oh God, I'm being attacked by

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: birds and marsupials. Okay, wait, I think I've got the phone.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_06]: Why don't you and Cricket go and I'll stay home and back at the bay.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_01]: That did not sound like fun. No.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, yeah, speaking of harrowing, apparently a long weekend camping trip is

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: far more deadly than I expected. Yeah.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_03]: So I think that hints towards what you've got for us. What film do we have to look forward to today?

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I brought back long weekend. This is an Australian film from 1978. It's an environmental

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_01]: thriller directed by Colin Eggleston and written by Everett DeRosh. It stars John Hargreaves and

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Briny Behets. And this film is interesting because not just the way that we're pronouncing

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Marsha, apparently in Australia, Dan it's Marcia. I was surprised by that. I don't think I've heard

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_01]: that pronunciation before. So yes, we've got our main couple, Peter and Marcia. They're a

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: dysfunctional Australian couple who go camping for a long weekend in an effort to salvage

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_01]: their failing marriage. There's tension right from the start when Peter points a gun at

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Marcia and they bicker over bringing their dog cricket. And then the bad behavior continues

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_01]: when Peter runs over a kangaroo on the highway. They also start a fire with a lit cigarette.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: They litter at will, and they shoot it pretty much anything that moves.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_01]: None of this seems to sit well with the local flora and fauna. When the couple kills

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: a pregnant sea cow in the ocean, this is when nature begins to fight back.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So this film is asking a lot of questions. Will Peter and Marcia patch up their differences

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: over her recent, spoiler alert, abortion and their swinging open marriage? Will the pair

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_01]: manage to get it on or will they both just read pornography all weekend? How many different

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_01]: creepy animal sounds can the production team put on a single soundtrack? And finally,

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: John Hargreaves dick accidentally fall out of his incredibly loose and tiny white short shorts.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Find out after the break.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_03]: And we are back to talk about Long Weekend, an Australian psychological thriller film

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_03]: shot in 1977 and first shown in 1978. Dan, I'm presuming you did not see this

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_06]: in theatres when it was released. Well, I mean, I wasn't born yet.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_06]: I hadn't even heard of this movie until it was brought up by Joe. So yeah,

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_06]: it's completely disappeared. I've never heard of anyone talking about this movie. Apparently,

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_06]: it did do fairly well in terms of the film festival circuit when it came out,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_01]: but it didn't do well at the box office. Unfortunately, you folks have the same historical,

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess, disregard for genre fare as we have in Canada where we will make them for money,

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: but then we don't like them as a populace and then the rest of the world discovers it and we

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_06]: try to play catch up. Yeah. I mean, it's often the case in New Zealand and Australia where

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_06]: it's almost like they don't appreciate the arts until the rest of the world appreciates

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_06]: their sort of output and then they go, oh, so apparently we do something well. Oh, yes,

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_06]: we're supporting it now, but only if it does well overseas first.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_03]: It feels very much like the British film industry where genre was sort of looked down

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_03]: upon in favour of sort of heritage stuff like merchant ivory and chariots of fire rather

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_03]: copically. Similar sort of story. I had never heard of it either, never caught it on TV,

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_03]: seen it being released by a cult DVD label or anything like that. So yeah, when you mentioned

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_03]: it, Joe, I had no idea what you were talking about. So what's your history with it?

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I honestly can't remember when I first watched this. I think it would have been in the late

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01]: 2000s or early 2010s. I had a falling out period with horror where I then tried to get

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_01]: back into it in a big way and it didn't hurt that the blockbusters were starting to shut down.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So I just went and grabbed pretty much like supermarket sweep style, everything off of the

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_01]: horror and sci-fi pile that I possibly could. And I've had a soft spot for Osploitation films

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: for a while. So this was one of those ones where I thought, okay, well, I've seen Turkey

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: shoot and I've seen Next of Kin. So maybe I'll check out one of this weird one. And it

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: caught my eye in part because you think that this is going to be a rural horror film. Like

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: there's so many hints that it's a city couple and they're going to get quote unquote savaged

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: by people in the small town or they're going to get hunted on the beach or something. And

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: then the film basically just becomes Mother Nature hates you and we go from there. And I

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_06]: thought it's so novel in that way. Yeah, I didn't expect that at all. And once you kind

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_06]: get the theme that yes, humans are bad, nature's fighting back. Then you realise,

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_06]: oh yeah, these people are awful to the environment. Just littering all the time,

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_06]: throwing bottles, killing wildlife. It's awful stuff. And I feel like back in the 70s,

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_06]: it was just normal. I feel like people just threw rubbish out the window all the time and

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_06]: that was just normal behaviour. Whereas now it's apparent. Oh gosh. Yeah. Everything they do

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_03]: is horrifying now. Casually throwing a cigarette butt out of the window and it starts a fire and

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_03]: they drive off running over a kangaroo. I think people would have been disturbed by that even

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_03]: then. But it's just the sort of wanton, careless attitude. Like Peter is hacking at a

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_03]: tree with an axe at one point and Marcia says to him, why are you doing that? And he says,

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_03]: why not? What an answer. He just randomly shoots his gun everywhere. He's shooting at empty glass

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_03]: beer bottles in the sea and just littering them with shards. And it's just such careless,

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_03]: thoughtless ownership of the land. I noticed in this group discussion of critics that was on

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_03]: my Blu-ray edition that I had, one of them made the connection to colonialism and just a

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_03]: sense that there's these white people just wandering around in a new land, treating it as though

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_03]: they own the place and it's just the scene of their next domestic dispute. Yeah. I did think

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_01]: of the two of you because I know that you had so much difficulty with the unlikable protagonist

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: in Shallow Grave just a couple of episodes ago. And I thought, oh no, I brought this

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: absolutely abhorrent couple. But I do admit I find part of the film's fascination with

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: if we don't like this people, do we still invest in the film? Like do we care if bad

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: things happen to them or do we relish it? And I honestly don't know if there's a right or wrong

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_06]: answer. Yeah. I mean, I personally relish it because you know, it's exactly like Shallow

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_06]: Grave. You've got these horrible people and they're both horrible. At first you think,

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_06]: oh, it's Peter. He's an asshole. He treats her Marcia terribly. But then you find that she

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_06]: cheated on him with another man and had an abortion. And they're not great people to each

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_06]: other. There's no one person that's worse than the other. I feel like Marcia is quite horrible

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_06]: in the fact that she's not enjoying the trip. She's not enjoying the camping. She hates it.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_06]: It's like a Dillick. It's my dream to be camping on a secluded private beach. That's

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_06]: exactly what I want to be doing right now. And she's just dissatisfied by the complete

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: serenity of it all. There is that one part where she says,

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe you brought me to this ugly place. And I just thought, ma'am,

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_01]: have you taken a look around? This place is gorgeous. I know. And she is horrible to the

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_06]: dog. She wants to leave the dog behind. They're like, we're going for three days.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_06]: Just throw some food at the dog. He'll be fine. And then when they are trying to leave the beach

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_06]: because all this stuff has happened, she's like, leave the dog. It's fine. We don't need

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_06]: to bring the dogs. Come on. Dogs important too. Come on. It's cricket.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. At one point she lies and says that the dog's dead and she's buried it.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_03]: So desperate to leave. She's so desperate to leave.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_03]: She just makes up a story and it's not even true. That sort of thing aside,

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Marcia's attitude towards camping did make her an identification figure for me.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm down with Marcia. This is not my idea of a good time.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_03]: But I see what you mean about the unlikable characters. I think for my case,

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_03]: where is Shallow Grave? I find it difficult to spend time with those three people because

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_03]: it sort of feels like it's supposed to be a Faustian bargain narrative where you care about

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_03]: the outcome and I didn't. With this, I feel as though the characters are, well,

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_03]: they're an essential part of the piece, of course, but the main thing that compels you

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_03]: is the Twilight Zone-like oddness of the situation. And it is set up as very much

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_03]: a Twilight Zone supernatural situation from the very beginning with them going in circles

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_03]: and seeing the same tree over and over again. And you know, you're in that territory of,

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_03]: if you go into the wilderness, it will warp time and space very much in the way that it does in

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_03]: the Blair Witch Project and so many other stories like this. And that's the sort of thing

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_03]: that is, I find really compelling. And there's also the fact that it is a beautiful looking

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_03]: film. It's shot on Panavision using anamorphic lenses. It's 2.35 to 1. One of two films that

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_03]: was using the experimental Panaglide Steadicam. The other one was John Carpenter and Dean Cundy

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_03]: on Halloween in the same year. So it has a lot of really, really beautiful camera work. So I

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_03]: was watching and thinking the artistry of this is really drawing me in even though the characters

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_06]: suck. Yeah. I heard it was all filmed on location as well. I mean, the location is

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_06]: stunning. It's beautiful, except for I think some shots in the car was filmed in a garage,

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_06]: I think, in a darkened garage with crew just running past with torches, flashlights to sort

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_06]: of give the impression of street lights, which is amazing. Yeah. Paul Mann's process.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_06]: You do what you can. This is not a big budgeted film. No, I do feel like it makes up for it

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_06]: with the sound. Like you mentioned, Joe, there was a lot of wildlife sounds and me being in

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_06]: Australia recognised all of it. So I've got hearing crows at one point. It's like,

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_06]: you're not going to get crows on a beach. A Tasmanian devil.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_06]: Tasmanian devil. Yes. It only lives in Tasmania. There's no way you would see one

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_06]: in, I think this movie is supposed to be set in Victoria, but I think it was filmed

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_06]: in New South Wales near Baker, but I'm not entirely sure of the setting. I think it's a

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_06]: fictional place that they talk about. Yeah. But yeah, you're not going to see a Tasmanian

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_06]: devil. All the other animals, you probably would actually. Also you mentioned kangaroo

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_06]: getting run over. That's very common occurrence actually. Very common. They have signs

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_06]: everywhere, kangaroos crossing. Pretty much no one drives at dusk or at night in the

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_06]: country because of the prevalence of kangaroos on the road. It's very, very common.

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. It reminded me of Talk To Me as well, which prominently features a kangaroo roadkill.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yes. It is one of those things again that I really love, which is foreshadowing.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_03]: There is a lot of foreshadowing in this movie. So much. So many things like right

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_03]: after Marcia has had a shower and you've been watching her naked, you see Peter find a naked

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Barbie doll on the beach that is covered with mold. There is a scene where the spear gun that

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Peter has brought with him, I don't know, he's armed to the teeth, he's determined to kill

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_03]: everything. That goes off by accident and startles Marcia, which again is a bit of a clue.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_03]: You also have an eagle attacking Peter and then later on an eagle attacks somebody else.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And a similar thing happens to Peter as happens to the kangaroo earlier on.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of foreshadowing of pretty much everything in this movie.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I felt very hedge cocky and I know I say this for like every thriller we see today,

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_06]: but it did. It really did. And a lot to do with the music. The music felt, from the get go,

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_06]: felt unnerving. It felt like something bad is about to happen, even if it wasn't showing

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_06]: anything bad going on. It has that sort of sense of like voyeurism at the start as well. It's

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_06]: quite a long shot of Peter talking to some other girl. So I guess you assume that he's

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_06]: having an affair maybe. So it has this kind of feeling of they're being watched as well.

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_06]: When they're on the beach, there are a few shots where it looks, it's almost like

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_06]: Halloween type. Looking behind the reeds, behind the bushes at the Cap Horn beach.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I know Conrad, you mentioned that this is using a same

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: technique that we'll see in Halloween. But I'm actually going to tie this back to a film

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_01]: from Canada because we often forget that Black Christmas is very influential around the world.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So the POV from the quote unquote killer as well as it's a little bit more influential

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: than I think we give it credit for. So that would have come out four years earlier.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_03]: That's very true. Right. Yes. Yes. Also had a very spooky soundtrack.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_03]: I do love the music in this. It's by a composer called Michael Carlos, who didn't seem

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_03]: to generate a lot of credits after this, unfortunately. No, but it's a wonderful

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_03]: combination of seventies analog synthesizers somewhere between a keyboard, a piano and a

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_03]: popsichord and strings, but just strings. It's not a full orchestra. I don't think there's any

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_03]: woodwinds either or brass. It's just strings and compositionally. It doesn't sound like

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Bernard Herrmann, but the choice of instruments I think is very inventive in the way that he

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_06]: often was. Yeah. Yeah. The cents were unexpected. They were used in a quite sort

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_06]: of acoustic kind of way. Like they didn't sound too electronic, but there were times where it

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_06]: felt very electronic. But yeah, it's analog. So it has that warmth to it. It doesn't sound

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_01]: too obscure. I'm glad that you even mentioned it because I was racking my brain. I'm not an

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_01]: audiophile in the same way that the two of you are. So I was hoping you would tell me,

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I was watching this last night and thinking, is that a synthesizer? I would never have

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: expected to have heard one in an Australian film from this time period. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_06]: exactly. Yeah. And there were moments as well where the synths kind of blended in with the

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_06]: sound design. There's some parts where you hear the dugong wailing sort of these cries

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_06]: that you hear in the background and then the synths kind of blend into it. You can't really

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_06]: tell the difference between synth and dugong at points. Yeah. Really great. Yeah. I think

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_01]: that was one of my favourite scenes where Marcia is caught looking out at the ocean,

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Peter's off investigating I think the other campsite. And it's almost like a siren's call

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01]: where she gets lured into the water and he has to come and rescue her. And I think that's

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: another contribution to that. What the hell is going on in these supernatural infused woods?

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. Yes. And of course, the sea cow is of the family Sirenia, which is named after

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_03]: the Siren of Greek mythology. Okay. The mermaids are sort of feminine sea creatures

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_03]: that would lure people to their doom in the waves. There's not a huge amount of special

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_06]: effects or gore in this movie. No. It's much more to do with sound to sort of unnerve you

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_06]: as a viewer and just sort of kind of a visceral look to it as well. So towards the

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_06]: when they're trying to escape and they just can't escape this beach. And it's the location alone

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_03]: makes it super creepy. Yeah. And apparently while they were filming, they just lucked out

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_03]: every single day, the weather was exactly the way they needed it to be. So the beach would make

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_03]: itself look beautiful on the days when it was sort of earlier on scenes where things are

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_03]: fine. And then it would be dark and ominous and would cloud over and be spooky for days when

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_03]: they needed it to be spooky. They were quite blessed four weeks shoot low budget and the

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_03]: weather just worked out every day. Really strange. Right. Speaking of supernatural.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. No, I do love how it has a sort of Edgar Allan Poe like sense of doom hanging

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_03]: over it. Like the dugong, even after Peter has shot it, it's carcass. They discover it on

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_03]: the beach. But then it seems to be slowly advancing towards them because it's closer

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_03]: to the camp every time they go back to it, which is really spooky. I love it. Yeah. I

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: imagine that there's probably a fair contingent of people who watch this film and say,

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_01]: oh, it's just hokey. It's, you know, animals attacking them unprompted. Ooh, scary. And

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I find it's the reverse. Like I find this film deeply unnerving and weird and just kind

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_03]: of creepy. Yeah. And I think it's because it isn't explicit gore. This isn't razorback,

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_03]: oddly enough written by the same writer Everett de Roche. Yeah. Which we've covered on this

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_03]: pod. It's not that. It's not Jaws. No. Even though we do get a scene that's kind of like

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Jaws where Peter's in the water. We do. Yeah. The sea cow is slowly advancing towards

[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_03]: him under the water, but we don't quite know what it is. Interestingly enough, immediately

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_03]: after Marcia has enjoyed herself in the tent, it's a little bit more like The Birds. I would

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_03]: say again, another Hitchcock reference where outsider comes to Cove. In that case, it's

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Tippi Hedren, of course, and this seems to create a hostile environment that needs to

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_03]: reject her and remove her. And then once she's dead, everything's fine and everything

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_03]: goes back to normal. So it sort of has that unexplained spooky aspect to it. And I do

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_03]: find The Birds weirdly unnerving in the same way as Long Weekend. Yeah. So I wanted to pose

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_06]: a question like, so is this beach cursed? Because they do find another set of campers,

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_06]: they find their vehicle, their van or whatever is submerged in the water and Peter goes

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_06]: investigates and there's a corpse in the back of that vehicle. So is this curse like

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: slowly just killing anyone that sets foot on it? I think so. It's like the beach from

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_03]: old only it's with animals. Yes, not being used for drug testing. Sorry, spoilers.

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think you do get the sense that it is nature is sort of biting back at anybody.

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Although the other families seem more like a side issue. It's not really very well

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_03]: developed as to who they were and why this is happening to them. And I'm not sure that

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_03]: idea that any family that steps foot there is going to suffer the same fate really works in

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_03]: the film's favour because otherwise, the film seems very much focused on the crimes against

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_03]: nature that Peter and Marcia have committed. And that makes me wonder is this movie and I

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_03]: was surprised that nobody in the commentary or in the discussion that I read mentioned this.

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Talk about the abortion, talk about it, talk about it.

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_03]: It feels like it could be a very conservative film.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Reacting against abortion as an unnatural act.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Because Dan, when you mentioned earlier that Marcia is just as bad as Peter,

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I was inclined to agree with you initially because she is grating, she's shrill,

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_01]: she's a heartbeat and you just think, oh, this relationship is awful. I don't even know

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: why they're together. And then you realise of course the whole point of the weekend is for

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: committing adultery. She wasn't engaging in infidelity. They had had discussions about

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_01]: opening up their marriage. So he's sleeping with the female partner, she's sleeping with

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_01]: the male partner. She got pregnant. We don't actually know who was the father,

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_01]: but then she has the abortion and it seems like she does it without consulting Peter.

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So he's very upset. But then yeah, like you can read into that the animal attacks being,

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_01]: they're also awful people who disregard or disrespect nature. But we also learn that

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the sea cow that they kill was a mother or it was pregnant. And that's I think part of the

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: reason why it keeps coming back is because the issue with the abortion keeps coming back.

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So again, that's why I also drew a comparison to Black Christmas earlier,

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: because that film is implicitly about abortion and a woman's right to choose.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_01]: She's got this horrible boyfriend named Peter.

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_06]: I completely missed that about the marriage opening up and them agreeing to see other people.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_06]: I had no idea. I thought she did cheat on him.

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's a throwaway line. So you'd be forgiven for missing it. And you're right,

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Conrad, when you read reviews, when you listen to things about the film,

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_01]: like we casually address it. And of course there's the moment in the film where she

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_01]: screams at him, I didn't want to have an abortion. But I think apart from that,

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_01]: like if you're not looking for it, if it's not your primary focus, it is actually very easy to

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_03]: overlook. Which is bizarre because there's so much imagery. I mean, okay, it's nature.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_03]: So you're going to draw these comparisons anyway. But you have Marcia and the egg.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah. You couldn't get a stronger symbol of fertility than an egg,

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_03]: which she smashes against a tree trunk and blood goes everywhere.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And Peter just keeps killing mothers over and over again. He shoots wildly into nature. And

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_03]: then you next see a dead duck surrounded by orphaned chicks, crying out for its mother,

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_03]: which is terrible. He kills the sea cow, which we later learned was pregnant.

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_03]: He's just killing mothers over and over again in the movie. And then finally,

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_03]: and then he'll kill her kills monster. Yeah. But it's interesting, right? Because Peter is

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01]: a certain kind of monster, but it's not as though he hates all women. It's not as though

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: he hates all animals because you're right. And he does love cricket. Some might say he even

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_01]: loves cricket the dog more than he loves his wife. So it's not black and white,

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_01]: which I do like because I feel like the film exists in this world of supernatural murkiness.

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_06]: It's a big gray area. Yeah. Once you realize it's kind of ecological horror,

[00:31:28] [SPEAKER_06]: it's nature versus humans. It does feel very like hating on human nature and humans killing

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_06]: each other. We're essentially killing the environment, killing each other. We're causing

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_06]: your own demise. When they switch on the radio at one point, there's a report on,

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_06]: I think it's a nuclear testing or something, or some sort of atomic explosion. Yeah. So it's

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_06]: its views on nuclear testing and nuclear weapons, that sort of thing. So it does have a very clear

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_03]: theme. Yeah. If you listen to the radio throughout, it's just one disaster after another.

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_03]: It talks about white cockatoos attacking houses. There's even, I think, a report on

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_03]: flying saucers on the radio in the background. There's a sense that the world is really on

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_01]: the brink. But I think the flying saucer piece also plays into, yeah, it's not just

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_01]: there's weird things happening, but I think it's meant to cue us a little bit like the

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: foreshadowing, Conrad, that we're stepping into some weird events. Right? Things may not be as

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_01]: they seem because there's a supernatural component. Yeah. I love how the relationship

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_03]: and the backstory between the couple is a beautiful piece of writing from Everett de Roche

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_03]: because it unfolds one hint at a time. First of all, you get a sense that possibly

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_03]: somebody's been unfaithful because there's a snotty remark about Marcia being an expert on hotel rooms.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Later on, she makes some reference to what would you have done if I died? Did she have

[00:33:00] [SPEAKER_03]: a near-death experience? What is this about? We just keep teasing it and teasing it.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. It's just one little drop after another until finally you find out that she has had

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_03]: an abortion and that she's been in therapy for this and that as a result of this or

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_03]: a whole host of other issues, the couple haven't been able to be physically intimate with each

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_03]: other. And then later you get that extra layer of because on the commentary track, the

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_03]: cinematographer and the producer are saying Peter forced Marcia to have an abortion and

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_03]: that's not true. Or maybe she thinks that it feels true to her in a way that she had no

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_03]: choice because of the way that he was behaving. But he accuses her of lashing out at the only

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_03]: thing that she could, which was the unborn child. So what I like about it, it isn't clear cut.

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_03]: It's two people who have very different truths, but universally they are not very

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_01]: pleasant people. Yeah. And I love this as fodder for horror, right? I think one of the other

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_01]: comparisons you could make for this film is the character relationship in the strangers,

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the Brian Bertino original where it's two people who are on the cusp of breaking up or they're

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: really going through it relationship wise, who then find themselves caught in something much

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_01]: larger beyond their control and their situation exacerbates the supernatural or the threatening

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_01]: elements. Yeah, right. I haven't seen that movie. Oh, wow, Dan. Okay. You're going to

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_03]: have a great experience. Yeah. So Dan, what fascinating piece of trivia did you dig up at

[00:34:42] [SPEAKER_06]: the beach today? Yes. Well, I found a dugog. So the dugog is often as you said, Joe referred

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_06]: to as a sea cow. It's one of four species of Cyrena which include three species of manatee.

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_06]: Habitat spans 40 countries and territories throughout the Indo-West Pacific, but its main

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_06]: stronghold is the Northern waters of Australia. Did you know dugongs are the only herbivorous

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_06]: mammal to have become completely aquatic and are not closely related to any other marine

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_06]: mammal, but instead their closest relative is the elephant, which is yeah, very surprising.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_06]: But yeah, they don't look like the dugong in the movie though. They're not dark coloured,

[00:35:33] [SPEAKER_06]: they're not black. They're normally quite sort of creamy white coloured and I have seen one

[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_06]: as well. Really? At the Sydney Aquarium there is a dugong and they feed it cos lettuce

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_06]: because it resembles sea grass and it's just a little bit easier to farm I guess.

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_05]: Right. And that's our trivia.

[00:35:57] [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, that's our trivia.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_06]: Did you know there is a remake of Long Weekend called Nature's Grave, a 2008 movie directed by

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_06]: Jamie Blacks, the same director as Urban Legend and Valentine, which I can't imagine that.

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you that it's a near shot for shot remake?

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. So you've essentially nearly already seen it. It's about 10 minutes shorter.

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I watched the beginning and the end so I can't vouch for whether there's a lot different in

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_01]: the middle, but yeah, he basically said he wanted to remake the same film and the

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_01]: substantial addition is that at the end of the film, there's a black and white montage

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01]: of the two main characters on their wedding day, which I think is interesting. It doesn't

[00:36:51] [SPEAKER_01]: quite work for me because it tries to put a soft romantic side to their relationship like,

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_01]: well here's them during happier times and I just thought no, it's not earned.

[00:37:02] [SPEAKER_01]: It feels incongruous to the rest of the film.

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. But is it a good film from what you could gather?

[00:37:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I will say that the performances are probably a little bit more professional. So we do have

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Jim Caviezel in the Peter Roll and the actress who plays Marcia isn't quite so histrionic when

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_01]: she's yelling at him. So everything just feels a little bit more rounded down,

[00:37:26] [SPEAKER_01]: but we're still getting absolutely gorgeous shots of Australian outback and Bush and so on.

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh okay. So it is still an Australian film I guess because Jamie Blanks is an Australian.

[00:37:37] [SPEAKER_06]: He is actually.

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_06]: Is he? Ah, I had no idea. Completely wrong there.

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's um, I would say if you've seen one, you've basically seen the other,

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but I do prefer the original because I'm a bit of a purist that way.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_06]: What other movies are similar to this? I mean, I can think of like a lot of creature features

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_06]: where you've got one animal like Piranha or Crawl or even Godzilla and the birds,

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_06]: Hitchcock's birds, but nothing where like all the animals and all the flora and fauna are

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_01]: attacking them. Yeah, the only one I could think of. It doesn't involve any animals from what I

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_01]: remember, but there is M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. Not a good comparison because that movie

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_01]: is just very, very silly. That's quite bad. Yeah. I like the start of that movie though.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_06]: I think the start really works and draws you in, but then it just falls off after the first

[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_01]: 10-15 minutes. I will say if you watch it as a comedy, like a straightforward comedy,

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_03]: it plays much better. Yeah, I can see that.

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_03]: I like to think of it as being strangely subversive. Like most disaster movies like

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_03]: this focus on protagonists that are capable and really smart and resourceful. Whereas

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Zooey Deschanel and Mark Wahlberg are just the other guys. These are the stupid people.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_03]: But I don't think it was intended that way. No, I couldn't think of anything similar either

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_03]: in the sense that it's everything. Usually it's a swarm of bees, it's the birds,

[00:39:22] [SPEAKER_03]: it's an alligator. Usually we focus on one boogie man at the same time, which is I think

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_03]: why this one feels so much more like a Twilight Zone episode because it's everything is out to

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_01]: me. The minute that they turn off the highway in the best classic horror sense,

[00:39:44] [SPEAKER_01]: they were never getting out of there. They were horrible people, but they were always going to

[00:39:48] [SPEAKER_03]: die. I like that Peter at one point sings the Teddy Bears Picnic, which is sort of a caution

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_03]: retale slightly creepy song, childhood song about going out into the wilderness and getting

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_03]: a big surprise. And Peter literally stumbles upon a Teddy Bears Picnic later on in the movie,

[00:40:12] [SPEAKER_03]: which has been assembled by the family that's now perished as well.

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've seen speculation that the other campers are the people that he nearly

[00:40:23] [SPEAKER_01]: runs into on the highway when he's distracted and lighting his cigarettes.

[00:40:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, it could well be because everything comes back. It's like the guy that runs him

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_03]: over at the end of the movie is in the bar at the beginning. It all ties together. Everything

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_03]: is neatly tied up in a nice little circular bow, which I love.

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it has been written very well. I mean, Everett de Roche has written some

[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_06]: fantastic movies. I mean, Fraser Beck for one thing and Frog Dreaming, I don't know

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_06]: one of our patrons has recommended it, but yeah, he also did Patrick

[00:41:02] [SPEAKER_06]: and another movie called Harlequin, which is supposed to be quite good.

[00:41:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you folks are ever looking for another sort of gently influenced by American culture,

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_01]: but very distinctly Australian, I would highly encourage you to check out Road Games,

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_01]: which is basically Australian duel. Yeah, with Jamie Lee Curtis,

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Stacey Keech. I would love to do that.

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Good times. That movie is five different intersections of genre.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_03]: It's good fun. Yeah, I'd like to do Link, another one of Everett de Roche's films as well.

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I've never seen it. It's Elizabeth Shoe and a homicidal primate.

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay. You two do love a homicidal primate.

[00:41:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we've done one this year, so it couldn't be this year, but I would like

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_03]: to go back to Everett does seem to have written a lot of films that are in the

[00:41:55] [SPEAKER_06]: oubliette for us. Yeah, whereas Colin Eagleston

[00:41:58] [SPEAKER_06]: hasn't really done that many other movies or not good ones anyway. I hear Sky Pirates is

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_01]: not good. I think he had a pretty bad experience.

[00:42:07] [SPEAKER_01]: When you read the details, he was very disappointed that this film didn't financially

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_01]: perform or it wasn't acknowledged by Australians. So I think he kind of went away and

[00:42:17] [SPEAKER_03]: his wounds for a while. Although the film was very successful, as you say, down on the

[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_03]: festival circuit and it did win some awards like at Stygis, is that how it's pronounced

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_03]: in Spain? Yeah, John Hargreaves won best actor and he was up against some pretty

[00:42:37] [SPEAKER_01]: heavyweight actors. I do think that both of the respective lead performances in this movie

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_01]: are great. They're not always easy to watch in terms of characterisations,

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but in terms of performance, I think that they're both absolutely selling this.

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah. And I haven't really seen them in anything else. John Hargreaves,

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_06]: the only movie I can even recognise he's in is Malcolm, which is like a Melbourne

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_06]: filmed movie from the 80s. And Brian Eberhetz is in 20 episodes of Neighbours and 26 episodes

[00:43:10] [SPEAKER_03]: The Saddle Club, which are very Australian. But I haven't seen. Yeah, John Hargreaves,

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_03]: who was so good in this movie, unfortunately he was not with us as long as he could have been.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_03]: He was a gay actor and he died of complications related to AIDS in 1996. So we lost him quite

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_03]: young and he was buried with his Stygis, I can't pronounce this award. I think Stygis.

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he was buried with his award because he was very, very proud of it and this movie.

[00:43:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh wow. And he should be. Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_06]: Hello, it's that special time of the podcast, The Mobley Awards, where we nominate our favourite

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER_06]: campfire warming parts of the film in a number of harpoon impaling categories.

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Best quote.

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'll admit that this film is a little bit light on quotability, but I did quite enjoy

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Marcia's retort to Peter in their car when she says, you self-indulgent maggot,

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you drag me to this awful ugly place and poke your head out of your $2,000 shell like a

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_01]: tortoise and call it reality. You're not Tarzan and I'm certainly not Jane by a long shot.

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, love it.

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_03]: It's marvellous, isn't it? Yeah.

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Favourite quote for you, Conrad.

[00:44:39] [SPEAKER_03]: My favourite quote was one that I felt as though I was being targeted by this one.

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_03]: It's from Marcia. I was sat there writing down Marcia and the egg and all of these

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_03]: mothers being killed and at one point Marcia in an argument with Peter shouts,

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh spare me the grotty symbolism.

[00:45:02] [SPEAKER_03]: She can see me writing my notes.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Best hair or costume.

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_03]: My favourite costume in this is a splendid outfit that Marcia decides to go camping in.

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a light blue jumpsuit with a green mottled chiffon blouse underneath it

[00:45:23] [SPEAKER_03]: with huge 70s lapels and bell bottom sleeves. It's hideous. It's one of the things that really

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_01]: dates the movie. And it's so impractical. It's not something that you should be wearing. I mean,

[00:45:37] [SPEAKER_01]: obviously it's telling us a lot about the character and how she's a city girl. She's not

[00:45:41] [SPEAKER_01]: ready for the beach or the bush. But also I just can't stop thinking about how hot she would

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_01]: be because we keep like we're sun tanning in this film. So clearly it's summer in Australia.

[00:45:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And those things have got to be polyester.

[00:45:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yes.

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_06]: Hair and costume Joe?

[00:46:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So I did mention Peter's shorts, but I think for me the most iconic look in this film is

[00:46:07] [SPEAKER_01]: the fact that we sport matching baby blue Adidas track jackets. Then of course the way

[00:46:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that we distinguish them between the two characters is after Peter has been attacked

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_01]: by an eagle, you can see all of the scratch marks on them.

[00:46:26] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that's very true. His and hers.

[00:46:28] [SPEAKER_06]: It's verging on one sort of like brand sponsorship at this point.

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Most 70s movement?

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_03]: I was going to say wife swapping.

[00:46:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh,

[00:46:44] [SPEAKER_03]: seem to be, I don't know, something I think about as being associated with the 70s and

[00:46:49] [SPEAKER_03]: ice storm from Ang Lee. You know, I just bet that Fondue was involved in some way.

[00:46:55] [SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[00:46:56] [SPEAKER_01]: That's key parties in Fondue, right?

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_01]: So I have two. One is an underwater attack sequence because this film comes out three

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01]: years after Jaws, which is the film that invents the blockbuster. So it really does

[00:47:10] [SPEAKER_01]: feel like we're just recreating a segment from Jaws. But I think also the front and

[00:47:16] [SPEAKER_01]: center focus on abortion, right? We're in the middle of the women's liberation movement

[00:47:21] [SPEAKER_01]: as well as the height of sort of sexual proclivity and freedom. So the fact that

[00:47:27] [SPEAKER_01]: we're screaming the word abortion in this movie is very 70s.

[00:47:31] [SPEAKER_06]: Ah, yes, yes.

[00:47:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Very true. Very true. What about you, Dan?

[00:47:35] [SPEAKER_06]: All right. 70s for me, I feel like this is much more trivial.

[00:47:41] [SPEAKER_06]: Everything is orange and yellow. I don't know what the 70s, but all of the

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_06]: camping equipment, the tent is all orange and yellow and it's not a color that is chosen now.

[00:47:55] [SPEAKER_03]: No, and brown. It was very much at that end of the spectrum that decade. I don't know why.

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Favorite scene.

[00:48:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So this was hard to narrow down because so much of the film kind of flows together,

[00:48:09] [SPEAKER_01]: but I am going to pick the quote unquote emotional climax for Peter where he gets

[00:48:14] [SPEAKER_01]: trapped in the dark by himself. So even cricket abandons him and then all of a sudden

[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_01]: this masculine man who has been so imposing the entire film so in charge loses his shit

[00:48:27] [SPEAKER_01]: as he jumps at every little sound. And I think it's great in terms of where the character has

[00:48:34] [SPEAKER_01]: gone over the course of the film, but also I just think it's a really unnerving scene.

[00:48:39] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it ends with them shooting the harpoon because he hears a sound,

[00:48:44] [SPEAKER_06]: but they don't show what happens until the next day, which I love. I love the sort of

[00:48:51] [SPEAKER_06]: prolonged reveal.

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's actually my favorite scene and it is just a single shot. It's just that tracking

[00:48:58] [SPEAKER_03]: shot from this guy who just looks like he's spent. He's been through everything and seen it all.

[00:49:05] [SPEAKER_03]: He's got nothing left and the camera just tracks along and there's Marcia.

[00:49:10] [SPEAKER_06]: She finally got the spear gun after all. Yeah, yeah. I love the driving scenes when

[00:49:18] [SPEAKER_06]: trying to get to the beach because it's just the location of this really dense sort of thicket of,

[00:49:26] [SPEAKER_06]: it looks like dead trees almost and it's just spooky lit up by the headlights

[00:49:31] [SPEAKER_06]: at the front of the car but also the back lights at the rear of the car. It's all red

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_06]: so it just looks creepy as. Most cliche moment.

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_03]: For cliche, I had romantic rolling. I don't know why couples need to roll down natural features

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_03]: together. It seems to be a thing so in this case it's Peter and Marcia down some sand dunes.

[00:50:01] [SPEAKER_03]: I think the princess bride has the most extreme version where they just tumble

[00:50:08] [SPEAKER_03]: head over heels down like a hill for about five minutes screaming declarations of love at each

[00:50:15] [SPEAKER_03]: other but yeah romantic rolling is mine. How about you Joe? Mine is the Chekhov's harpoon.

[00:50:26] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're gonna shoot it once, you gotta shoot it twice and you gotta shoot it into a person.

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it's very true. Yeah, there's a lot of foreshadowing on that.

[00:50:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Even up to the first time that Peter sees Marcia in this, he's scoping her out through

[00:50:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the literal scope and you think oh is he preparing to shoot her? Lo and behold he does.

[00:50:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's true. Best special effect. I really liked the touch of the bloody tire marks

[00:50:56] [SPEAKER_03]: left by the truck that dragged. Obviously because what I particularly like is there are

[00:51:02] [SPEAKER_03]: gaps. It's not like a solid trail, there are gaps in it so obviously Peter's blood only got on

[00:51:08] [SPEAKER_03]: part of the tire. Right. It's nasty. Joe, special effect. So this film doesn't really have

[00:51:17] [SPEAKER_01]: a ton I think as you noted Dan but I will say I don't think it's a real animal that they

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_01]: shot up in the water so I'm going to go with the sea cow. I think it looks weird and

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_01]: creepy particularly for people who are not familiar with it but I have to assume that they

[00:51:34] [SPEAKER_01]: made that as you said Conrad out of something and I think it looks unnatural. Yeah, it does.

[00:51:42] [SPEAKER_06]: It looks quite alien. I don't know for someone that has seen a doogog it doesn't

[00:51:46] [SPEAKER_06]: look like a doogog. It doesn't look right. Yeah, it looks more like a seal. I didn't

[00:51:52] [SPEAKER_06]: actually know what it was when I first saw it until they pointed it out but yeah it does work

[00:51:59] [SPEAKER_06]: the part where he shoots it and it's kind of bursting with blood is weird. Yeah.

[00:52:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Favorite sound effect. So I think with mine I'm gonna go with that wailing sound that we've got

[00:52:13] [SPEAKER_01]: for I think it's meant to be the sea cows like offspring, the kind of mournful call.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know it's very eerie and evocative. Yeah I was going to pick that as well and it

[00:52:26] [SPEAKER_06]: changes as well it kind of morphs over time and morphs into sort of a synth score at one point

[00:52:33] [SPEAKER_06]: but sometimes it sounds like quite human and sometimes it doesn't. Yes. Yeah,

[00:52:38] [SPEAKER_01]: it's really interesting. To the fact that in the film we actually say it sounds like a

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_03]: baby. Yeah that's right. Mine is still doogong related it is the sound of it slowly dragging

[00:52:49] [SPEAKER_03]: its way towards him at night in the dark you can't see it you can just hear it and it's not like an

[00:52:59] [SPEAKER_03]: overly dramatic sound it's just very creepy and very determined. It's coming. It's full

[00:53:07] [SPEAKER_01]: tales from the crypt isn't it? Yeah, yeah really is. Most funniest moment. So I will have to

[00:53:13] [SPEAKER_01]: admit that I don't think either the eagle or the possum attacks are entirely convincing

[00:53:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and if these are puppets I would love it because they just gave me a bit of a giggle.

[00:53:28] [SPEAKER_03]: I think they did the best they could I think it's a marvel in terms of its editing which is

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_03]: by a man named Brian Kavanagh but yeah they didn't have a lot of special effects there

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think. Yeah. My favourite funny moment was another exchange between our good friends

[00:53:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Marsha and Peter and it's actually a warm moment because not all of the movie is them bickering at

[00:53:53] [SPEAKER_03]: each other sometimes you do have some warmth which again makes it much more of a complex

[00:53:58] [SPEAKER_03]: and nuanced movie than it would otherwise be and they're just sort of kidding with each

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_03]: other he's talking about his mother and Marsha says you should have married your mother

[00:54:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and Peter replies you've got better tits. Yeah and we see them and they are quite good.

[00:54:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yep and that's the director's girlfriend.

[00:54:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah but I guess he wasn't too worried about her being intimate on screen with John Hargreaves

[00:54:31] [SPEAKER_03]: given that he had no sexual interest. And that's our mooblies.

[00:54:38] [SPEAKER_03]: That's our mooblies. Yes.

[00:54:42] [SPEAKER_08]: Hi I'm Sandy King Carpenter producer of movies like They Live, Prince of Darkness,

[00:54:49] [SPEAKER_08]: In the Mouth of Madness and you're listening to Movie Oublié.

[00:54:55] [SPEAKER_06]: Ah yes it's final verdict time should the 1978 Australian ecological horror film Long Weekend

[00:55:02] [SPEAKER_06]: be let loose from its cage and be celebrated by all or should it be shot multiple times with

[00:55:08] [SPEAKER_06]: a rifle and let rot in a shallow sandy grave back down in the darkness of the Oublié lost

[00:55:15] [SPEAKER_06]: forever ah Joe our guest for today you have presented us with Long Weekend what do you think

[00:55:23] [SPEAKER_01]: should people watch this? Well I brought this to you and I don't come to friends without a gift

[00:55:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I would enjoy receiving myself so I would absolutely vote to release this film. I think

[00:55:36] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a marvel and it's a quiet gem like the two of you hadn't really heard or seen of it

[00:55:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and I think a lot of other people are going to discover this for the first time and

[00:55:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I just think yeah it's quite a solid little thriller and there's a lot to talk about.

[00:55:51] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah I was surprised by this movie I had no sort of impressions of what it was supposed

[00:55:58] [SPEAKER_06]: to be at the start it makes it look like yes it's going to be like a wrong turn type movie

[00:56:03] [SPEAKER_06]: where the locals have their way with the city folk but it's not and there's some really strong

[00:56:12] [SPEAKER_06]: themes about humans kind of suck you know nature is going to win at the end and I think

[00:56:20] [SPEAKER_06]: just the relationship between the two characters alone and the fact that it's pretty much just

[00:56:24] [SPEAKER_06]: characters for the entire movie it's pretty impressive and complex in terms of how the

[00:56:31] [SPEAKER_06]: dynamic and how the story unfolds yeah it was a pleasant surprise I would definitely recommend

[00:56:38] [SPEAKER_03]: this. Yeah and I would third that even though I'm not going to be the first person to

[00:56:46] [SPEAKER_03]: volunteer for a long weekend camping but I really enjoyed this for all the reasons that

[00:56:51] [SPEAKER_03]: it's a very dense allegorical work despite the slapback from Marsha about the grotty symbolism

[00:56:59] [SPEAKER_03]: it's beautifully shot on panavision anamorphic lenses and experimental panaglide work.

[00:57:07] [SPEAKER_03]: The score is really interesting with the analog synths and the stark string compositions

[00:57:13] [SPEAKER_03]: it's sort of mournful and strange and unnerving and very much like a Twilight Zone episode

[00:57:20] [SPEAKER_03]: and a two-hander between two fascinating characters that I hate much like Shallow Grave

[00:57:29] [SPEAKER_03]: but in this case I was if not invested in them personally but I was invested in finding out

[00:57:36] [SPEAKER_03]: exactly what happened to them and the fact that it all tied up with all the foreshadowing at

[00:57:41] [SPEAKER_03]: the beginning of the movie and it has so many themes knocking around in there that are

[00:57:47] [SPEAKER_03]: fascinating to think about yeah I absolutely loved it I thought it was an amazing little gem of a

[00:57:53] [SPEAKER_06]: movie. Yeah yeah I have to say if you are looking for a sort of more slasher gore-filled

[00:57:59] [SPEAKER_06]: movie it's not it's not that it's quite slow it's much more of a thriller and you don't

[00:58:06] [SPEAKER_06]: really see a lot as well so it's it's not that type of movie. No it reminds me a lot of

[00:58:15] [SPEAKER_03]: the New Zealand movie that we watched The Quiet Earth. Oh yeah. You know a small character study

[00:58:21] [SPEAKER_03]: that's you know in a strange but intellectually compelling situation and I yeah I really enjoyed

[00:58:29] [SPEAKER_01]: it I thought it was great. Yeah if you are looking for something a little bit more exciting

[00:58:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean obviously most creature features will do this but there's another one with a couple who

[00:58:39] [SPEAKER_01]: are kind of going through it in their personal life who then have to face the elements. It's

[00:58:45] [SPEAKER_01]: a Canadian film called Backcountry where the couple has to face down against a bear.

[00:58:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Ah right. Well we will definitely recommend it it sounds like but what did our patrons think

[00:58:59] [SPEAKER_03]: can't wait to find out. Hello Hal. Yes Conrad. Could we have the patrons vote please?

[00:59:05] [SPEAKER_02]: They hate it they want to throw it back. Oh wow. It's terrible how dare they.

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Wow yeah it was unanimous among our patrons. Eddie Coulter said this was a hard one to

[00:59:23] [SPEAKER_03]: determine what my vote would be. Long Weekend is an interesting film however the couple is

[00:59:28] [SPEAKER_03]: so unlikable and unsympathetic that I found the rewatch to be painful to sit through. I

[00:59:35] [SPEAKER_03]: hate seeing animals get hurt in movies so animal attack movies are my least favourite genre so that

[00:59:41] [SPEAKER_03]: doesn't help my enjoyment of the film either. Back to the humiliate it goes. Jasmine said

[00:59:48] [SPEAKER_03]: watching Long Weekend was the inverse of watching the cartoon series Captain Planet

[00:59:53] [SPEAKER_03]: and the Planeteers even though I feel strongly for the environment I would jeer at the goody

[01:00:00] [SPEAKER_03]: blue superhero and pretentious teenagers of the title all the while refusing to shout

[01:00:06] [SPEAKER_03]: go planet and at the same time rooting for the villains because they had colourful personalities

[01:00:12] [SPEAKER_03]: and were funny. However I felt guilty doing so because they were polluting the planet. In Long

[01:00:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Weekend the only characters are the villains who were not colourful or funny doing dear worthy

[01:00:23] [SPEAKER_03]: planet polluting acts but I still felt guilty rooting for nature the hero of the film when it

[01:00:30] [SPEAKER_03]: brought justice in the end. I guess I will shamefully yell go planet and also yell go

[01:00:36] [SPEAKER_03]: throw this movie back in the oubliette. And Chazilla said okay who made us watch this Drek?

[01:00:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Did you guys lose a bet? Instead of ranting about how much I disliked Long Weekend I'll

[01:01:29] [SPEAKER_03]: target your gun by pointing it at another universe.

[01:01:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Lovely to hear from more of our patrons as usual and lovely to see them all united

[01:01:38] [SPEAKER_03]: even with Jasmine so she's not the odd one out this time. But sorry we enjoyed it.

[01:01:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes we did. So we're setting it free. Off you go Long Weekend.

[01:01:55] [SPEAKER_03]: So thanks Joe so much for bringing this gem of a movie for us to discover together.

[01:02:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Where can our listeners find you and find more exciting films that you've discovered?

[01:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes well I can't imagine I'll be picking up any new fans from your patrons but if anyone

[01:02:13] [SPEAKER_01]: else liked the movie you can follow me at be still my remote on most socials and obviously

[01:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: new episodes of Horror Queers come out every Wednesday and then I've got about 10 other ones

[01:02:25] [SPEAKER_01]: if you like hearing my voice. And it's easiest just to keep track of me on socials because

[01:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: that's where you'll find all of them. Yes.

[01:02:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Do you have any exciting episodes of the Horror Queers coming up that we should look out for?

[01:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Well I may have one with a special guest from this year's podcast coming out.

[01:02:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah so we're going to be checking out quite well I guess we're not going to call it Campy

[01:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Are We Conrad? Because the director himself would prefer that we not but we are going

[01:02:56] [SPEAKER_01]: to be discussing Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula with Udo Kier.

[01:03:02] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh and of course Joe and Conrad you have your YouTube series as well.

[01:03:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes if you head on over to YouTube and look for the queer gaze you can watch Joe and I

[01:03:12] [SPEAKER_03]: reacting to queer movies from every country in every decade.

[01:03:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah every country.

[01:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: As many as we could squeeze into the six episodes that we managed to get edited.

[01:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah but we did do an Australian movie if you want to check that out.

[01:03:28] [SPEAKER_06]: And if you want to keep up to date with Movie Oobliet you can follow us on all social

[01:03:33] [SPEAKER_06]: platforms as Movie Oobliet and you can email us at movie.oobliet.gmail.com

[01:03:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes and if you'd like to support the show and vote down the movie then head on over to Patreon

[01:03:45] [SPEAKER_03]: where as little as a dollar you can get access to extended portions of the show

[01:03:49] [SPEAKER_03]: and nominate films to feature in future episodes. For five dollars you get to

[01:03:54] [SPEAKER_03]: vote against us in a bid to get rid of the movie and get access to our exclusive

[01:04:01] [SPEAKER_03]: monthly minisodes and for ten dollars you can be an executive producer and get rewarded

[01:04:07] [SPEAKER_03]: at the end of every episode like Chazilla, Eddie Coulter, Isaac Sutton, Dr Doggy Surge,

[01:04:13] [SPEAKER_03]: iconographer Ryan A Potter and new for this episode Evan Goodchild.

[01:04:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Hey nice thanks Evan.

[01:04:22] [SPEAKER_06]: How latest Minnesota we talked about Hudson Hawk.

[01:04:27] [SPEAKER_06]: We did yes that was good fun.

[01:04:30] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah it was.

[01:04:31] [SPEAKER_06]: We've got merchandise on Redbubble and a YouTube channel as well

[01:04:34] [SPEAKER_06]: and if you haven't rated and reviewed us already please do does help us out a lot.

[01:04:40] [SPEAKER_06]: It does.

[01:04:41] [SPEAKER_06]: All right Conrad what's up for next episode what's the film?

[01:04:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Well we are heading over to the other side of the world

[01:04:48] [SPEAKER_03]: for an American horror comedy film made in 1991 The People Under the Stairs.

[01:04:57] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh yes I've been wanting to check this out for so long I still haven't watched it.

[01:05:02] [SPEAKER_06]: I'm looking forward to it.

[01:05:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a good one.

[01:05:05] [SPEAKER_06]: Yep where's Craven?

[01:05:06] [SPEAKER_06]: Should be fun.

[01:05:08] [SPEAKER_06]: All right that's it for another episode Joe thank you again for joining us on this

[01:05:13] [SPEAKER_06]: one and discussing Long Weekend.

[01:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my pleasure thank you so much.

[01:05:18] [SPEAKER_06]: All right until next time goodbye.

[01:05:21] [SPEAKER_06]: Bye.

[01:05:33] [SPEAKER_06]: $2,000 worth of camping gear for that we could have had a VIP suite at a Southern Cross.