Long Weekend (1979)

Director	Colin Eggleston
Writers	Everett De Roche
Starring	John Hargreaves, Briony Behets
Genre	Nature Attacks
Tagline	Their crime was against Nature … Nature found them guilty.
Country

Yes I know what you are thinking, just another nature attacks movie with a "B" grade feel and cast to it, and hey where's Roger Corman's name in the credits. You would be wrong of course, Long Weekend is a strickingly original Australian movie that is quite rightly considered a cult classic. I would go further and define Long Weekend as an out and out landmark of the horror genre Downunder and a defining moment in the dark genre as it developed in Australia. Forget Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock, in and of itself a strong supernatural flavoured outing, Long Weekend defined the state of the horror nation in the 1970s, and it's influence can be detected in more recent fare such as Undead and Wolf Creek.

Talk us through it

The weekend starts okay with Marcia gradually coming to terms with being without room service, but pretty soon the tensions in the marriage bubble to the service. You get the impression that these people hate each other, which does make you wonder about the logic of Peter's weekend gambit, but what the hey. Of course not helping matters is an apparent malevolent bush fill of murderious Aussie flora and fauna which makes the vines in The Ruins look like Burke's Backyard material in comparison.

Review

In most nature attacks movies, (Frogs, Kingdom of the Spiders et al), the plot is simplicity defined. For some reason, usually environmental contamination (see our upcoming review of Eight Legged Freaks in the Ring In section), the balance of nature has been upset and a specie(s) is on the rampage, which generally means human blood is going to be spilled. Good and noble horror that it might be, the sub genre pretty much follows the standard party line of "this happened to unbalance nature, a gradual escalation of attacks occur, before finally the survivors find either a panacre to re-balance the situation, or are left as an isolated pod of humanity in the aftermath of a blood bath". Hey who can forget the survivors of Kingdom of the Spiders waiting on their fate in a web encased cabin. Movies as disparant as Tarantula, The Beginning of the End, and Beast have all toed the party line. Long Weekend scribe Everett De Roche nods towards the troppes of the nature attacks sub genre and then simply abandons them for more exotic, and ultimately more rewarding notions on how to approach the subject matter.

Big hairy spiders eating William Shatner, dial me into that concept.

Slight aside here, you had better get used to our tendancy to go off the beaten path into digression-ville, it will make your reading of the site so much easier. During our discussion of the current movie we got onto the subject of "where has all the nature attacks flicks gone". Sure M. Night's latest is the nature gone psycho movie The Happening and of course The Ruins is apparently headed straight to DVD Downunder, but neither of these movies has the feel of a sub genre effert. In M. Night's case I think it's due to not enough cheese or out and out nastiness being applied, whereas The Ruins simply involves obnoxious U.S twenty somethings so who the flock cares. After much consideration, i.e we opened a few more beers and shot ideas back and forward between ourselves till something stuck, we decided it's all the fault of the modern pre-occupation with making zombie flicks. Horror is pretty cheap to make and zombie movies are the cheapest of the cheap, hence why we are getting so many being released currently. It's a wave that will eventually crash against the rocks of indifference in my honest opinion, how may zombie movies does the world really need? We are actually thinking of making our own movie "Bored of the Dead". Anywise the current lack of nature runs amock product is due to the dead eating every potential victim in sight and not leaving anything for the plants and critters to chow down on. Maybe they could remake this movie as Long Weekend of the Dead for an apparent modern audience who do tend to go pretty zombie like in the face of Hollywood advertising. Nothing else can explain Cloverfield folks, it was an evil plot for world domination by the Studio and involved turning teens into brain dead zombies of cinema consumption.

Before anyone writes in to tell us that we suck, yes we are aware of the remake of Lost Weekend scheduled for 2008. Slightly worrying is the fact that the remake has dropped off the released schedules, and no one Downunder has apparently got a look at it yet. I did get a major giggle out of the trailer though, that dugong scene is freaking hilarious Rex.

Back to the black bean sauce.

De Roche dials into the whole concept of the nature attacks sub genre in a surrealistic fashion. Everything could have a natural explanation, and the whole shooting box could be put down to his protagonists alienation from the Australian bush. That's a recurrent theme in both Australian and New Zealand horror movies, and Downunder movies in general by the way. While Aussies love the concept of the untamed bush, there's a general feeling of trepidation towards it in the urban sprawls that dominate the modern landscape. The land is Ancient, foreboding, and seems permantly just out of quilter with reality. Australians are not comfortable in the outback, unless their name happens to be Mick Taylor, and get quite enough exposure to it from the idiot box via documentaries thank you very much. De Roche plays this angle up with his characters Peter and Marcia being set upon by all manner of flaura and fauna, and not equating themselves well in the process. So in essense is nature attacking or is it just growing paranoia on the part of our yuppie couple to perfectly normal occurances? De Roche is asking the audience do they subscribe to the Fox Maulder or Dana Scully world view.

Before I get attacked for this view point lets examine the only two instances where a more supernatural explanation has been advanced by various Critics and Reviewers. Firstly "Divina" the wonder dugong who seemingly advances up the beach towards the camp site. For those who haven't seen the movie yet, shame on you if you live in Oz, Peter was out swimming when Marcia noted a dark shape in the water moving toward him. Later Peter fires a clip into the mysterious shape cause it might be a shark, and besides it's his god given right as an Aussie beer drinking male to shot up the environment. Heck John Howard just spent a decade pissing all over nature so what's the odd marine unit amongst friends. The body eventually washes up, one thing I love about De Roche's script is nothing is left hanging, and we discover it's a dugong or Sea Cow for the Downunder challenged. It's a large Aussie marine mamal sort of like a porpoise and that's all you need to worry about. Peter, and De Roche likes notching up the irony, comments that the coastline used to be home to thousands of the mammals without noting he's directly contributed to their decline. During the rest of the movie the dead marine mother, that plantiff wailing heard through out Long Weekend is her orphaned calf, keeps moving up the beach when not being watched. Clearly you have to keep an eye on toddlers and dead dugongs in these parts folks. For a lot of people this is proof postivie that Long Weekend has a supernatural explanation. Well bollocks to that there's a far more rational explanation. Prior to each discovery that the dugong has continued it's laborious walk about Director Eggleston pops in a wide angle view of the ocean from various vantage points on the beach. The clear indication is that surf is up and perhaps the movement of the deceased dugong toward the camp site could be the result of normal tidal forces. Eggleston isn't about to offer this as an explanation, Long Weekend remains prosaic, it's up to the individual viewer to interpret from his or her world viewpoint.

The second instance of a supernatural element being highlighted by Reviewers, and it must be said in the main by foreign Scribes, occurs during the final night when Peter throws a branch onto the fire and it suddenly flares up. In some quarters this is viewed as proof positive that the bush is alive with a maleviolent force as this incident seemingly sets off the local wild life in a frenzy of growls and squarks and whatever other noises the local fauna is apt to make. Hold onto your knickers for a moment there. A sudden bright light, you wouldn't suppose this might upset the nocturnal rest of the local wildlife would you? The branches Peter is throwing onto the fire happen to be from under a gum tree, uhmm anyone hear of eucalptyus, a naturally occuring oil produced by gum trees that has a propensity to burst into flame when ignited? The major regenerative method of the Australian bush is via fire, the trees love a good open bush fire. Don't ask, I'm not a botanist, probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. Anywise the point here is that De Roche offers a perfectly natural explanation, if you want to take that explanation. So help yourself to getting either your Maulder or Scully on.

The script writer further enhances his vision via the relationship between married couple Peter and Marcia. To say they are in the dying stages of a failed marriage would be an understatement. De Roche gradually lets the audience into the back story and why these two seemingly hate each other. Seems Marcia is recovering from an abortion, the ominously undertone there is that Peter may have forced her into getting it done (got to love the liberal 1970s), due to the baby not being his. If that's not bad enough, we learn that Peter pushed Marcia into a relationship with the next door neighbour in a failed attempt to get hot and heavy with the female half across the fence. Yes Peter wont be winning any prizes for husband of the year, but Marcia isn't much better. She's the typical narcissit, only interested in her own comfort and gosh if she isn't going to get her own way then she sure as hell is going to bitch about it and make everyone else's life a misery. Neither character is likeable, but for no apparent reason you do end up getting behind them during their trials and tribulations and are hoping they will make it to the final credits. Hey they might still be able to get that divorce Tuesday morning, if Marcia can abandon her tennis leason schedule for the day of course.

One of the aspects of De Roche's script I really didn't get a handle on was his motherhood theme. De Roche is definitely trying for something there but it went well over my head. Marcia has had an abortion, it's the root cause of her neurosis and eventual breakdown. During the course of Long Weekend De Roche offers at least two other motherhood ideas. Firstly the forementioned orphaned dugong, Peter has killed it's mother, and the calf is mournfully wailing, in what Peter describes as a good facsimile of a human baby's cry. Well I guess that would be the case if you had of taken a decent amount of mind altering drugs prior to hearing the sound a dugong calf makes. Regardless we get the point, or not in my case. In the second occurance Marcia picks up an eagle egg and is for no apparent reason intent on it during the first act. Later Peter notices the egg for the first time and comments on it being probably an eagle's egg. Yes Peter is one of those irritating "eddie the expert" on all subjects. For his trouble, and deducing ability, Peter is immediately attacked by an eagle as Director Eggleston channels Alfred Hitchcock. The culmination of this avian attack is Marcia breaking the egg against a tree. Almost forgot, we get Peter indiscriminately shooting into the bush at one stage, with the direct result that he kills a duck and leaves her ducklings orphaned. Clearly we are meant to take something home from all this, but I didn't manage to join the dots, beyond a vague notion that nature might be reflecting Marcia's current mental health and anger toward Peter.

Director Colin Eggleston takes De Roche's script and nails the visuals. For the first two thirds of the movie Eggleston has it on a slow setting as he develops his characters, their relationship, and the isolated setting. Right from the start Eggleston is hinting at things to come. Peter has Marcia in the sights of his new rifle, that sure comes home to roost. Marcia is going to great pains with a fern (1970s in the bath tub time, are you feeling the nostalga? - no neither was I), and the feral version will come into play during the final act. Eggleston nails the yuppie couple who's own private camelot is starting to frey at the edges, and broadly foreshadows future developments. Long Weekend is tighter than a duck's bum and the Director is making it sit up and beg. [Editor's Note: that's another thing to watch out for, we love ourselves some mixed metaphors].

Eggleston focuses heavily on one of the themes of the Long Weekend script with our international bright young things' environmental terrorism. Both characters are constantly firing up a cig, and then just throwing the butt away without thought. We even get a small fire started as a result of one of Peter's discarded butts, a warning to smokers right there. Peter cuts a swath through the local wildlife which would make the Captain of the <> envious. So that's why you have roo bars if going bush! And Marcia takes to the local ant population with a vengence and enough insecticide to defoliate large parts of Victoria. Through out the movie Peter and Marcia seem unaware of the environmental carnage they are causing, as they are too rapt up in their own private Idahos. It's more crime by oversight than a fixed agenda to root the bush up. There's a clear environmental message going down here, and Eggleston underlines this with his final track cam view of the camping site. Peter and Marcie have managed to produce more litter than your average footy crowd at a grand final.

Surprisingly Eggleston went with panavision during shooting, the same film aspect made famous by John Carpenter in his seminal masterpiece Halloween. Eggleston uses it to stunning effect with panaramic views of the beach, sea shore, and some Sam Raimi style evil woods. Long Weekend looks absolute wonderful and full credit to Eggleston for using his visuals to highlight the isolation the feuding couple are operating in.

Simply put the Director is on fire through out Long Weekend and turns in one of the best movies ever made in Australia. Unfortunately I don't have room to cover everything Eggleston has going down so will limit myself to three more observations.

Firstly the Director has a real knack with his camera angles and at stages uses various cameras as almost additional characters. We get plenty of overhead shots, allows for the feeling of nature overshadowing Peter and Marcia, previous mentioned panaromic shots, Eggleston uses this at times to indicate the passage of time, and most importantly the best used of POV I've seen in a long time. The Director goes with low almost ground shots from within bushes or from behind trees to give the audience the general feeling that Peter and Marcia are being watched by something just out of frame. At any stage you expect something to spring out at our leads. Eggleston's ability to keep the audience on their toes via his camera work is one of the crowning achievements of Long Weekend. And yes I did get caught out in one of the jump scenes, damn those wombats make freaky noises.

Eggleston manages to ramp up the tension through the use of camera angles and suggestion without needing to resort to the gore tactics of lesser Directors. For example when Peter first spies the camper van down the beach he decides to go check it out, after all if you are camping at the beach with your family who doesn't want to meet a beer guzzling bloke with a rifle. Eggleston takes time to make us aware of the fact that no one is around the van and then cuts to Marcia. We get a POV angle that Marcia is unaware of, and are left wondering who this could be and what it could bode for Marcia's immediate future, since Peter is down the beach. Eggleston is able to squeeze every drop of tension out of this scene without needing blood, sudden loud music, or anything else modern Directors try to palm off as cinema craft. It's a false scare scene but Eggleston has it rocking in it's implications. Expect the Director to pull a number of these almost slights of hands through the course of Long Weekend.

For most of the fauna shots the crew were sent down to Tasmania for secondary location filming. If from overseas Tasmania is an Island at the bottom of the Australian mainland famous for inbreds and something to do with maps. They like to keep it in the family and off the streets down there. Actually, and this is a slight digression, the use of Tasmanian fauna and in particular a Tassie Devil, has lead to some debate over the years as to where the movie is meant to be set. The main locations are based in Victoria or New South Wales, ergo are we meant to think the movie goes down in Victoria or Tasmania or New South Wales? Personally I don't give a toss, they could have based it in Queensland for all that I care. Nowhere during the movie's running time is it catagorically stated where we are hanging so quite possibly this minor issue is only of interest to passing film scholars. Anywise Eggleston had a huge problem to overcome, how to make various Australian iconic wildlfe seem threatening rather than the indicators of Australiana they had been used for in previous movies. The Director uses sound and sudden cuts as his main weopans in making the former cuddly aussie critters into the Jason Voorhees of the outback. Sound bites are at times almost overwhelming with much grunting, screeching, crying, and that damn dugong calf wailing. Eggleston has this happening for most of the movie, and uses sudden cut scenes to throw wildlife into frame. So we get the possum that drew blood, the avian assault squad, evil incarnate in a wombat, and what looks to be a killer koala but which I'm prepared to put good money on being the elusive and deadly Australian drop bear. I mentioned the Tassie Devil previously right? Of course a few creatures don't need help via the soundtrack. We get a number of snakes toward the end of the movie and one big hairy spider, though it has to be said the Director went with a close up to make it seem much larger than it really would be in real life. If you want to know how to make the Aussie bush and fauna seem threatening go ask Colin Eggleston.

Finally I wanted to talk about Eggleston's handling of one of the more perplexing scenes of Long Weekend, Peter and Marcia's visit to the other camp site. Early in the movie Peter had spied a camper van at the other end of the beach that seemed abandoned. For reasons only apparent to Peter he decides he wants to check it out on the last morning before leaving. Marcia grudgingly agrees to a slight detour and this is pretty much the straw that finally brokes the back of their marriage. Clearly Marcia finds it easier to just give in to Peter's alpha male schtick than to put up with further arguing and verbal abuse. Told ya that neither of these characters are particularly likeable. The couple arrive at the other end of the beach and Peter gets out to investigate as the van isn't parked where it was previously. He notes the top of the van just visible out in the ocean and heads into the bush to check the camp site. It might be just me but how did he know there was a camp site there? The site is overgrown with undergrowth and looks decidably like it might have been vacated in a hurry. There's a child's tea party setup and a tent covered in cobwebs. Peter is drawn to the tent and slowly raises the flap, Eggleston milks the scene here for all it's worth in terms of tension and I for one was not expecting to see what Peter uncovers. Sitting in the back of the tent is the fattest Jack Russell Terrier I have ever seen! The terrors of the Aussie bush eh. Peter, clearly not knowing what the adage "let sleeping dogs lie" means, goes to pick up the deranged ratter from hell and nearly gets savagely bitten for his troubles. Pete, buddy, if they have teeth don't put your freaking hand anywhere near them didn't you learn your leason after the possum attached itself to your fingers? Meanwhile Marcia, who has been sitting in the truck fuming cause she's a bitch and all, comes under audio assualt by that damn wailing dugong calf that seems to know just the right moment to launch another tirade against the world. Marcia finally snaps, this has been threatening since early in the second act, and grabs what I think is an oar and heads down the beach toward the sea to sort the calf out once and for all. I got the general impression that she thought the top of the camper van was the marine creature but can't state that as a fact. Peter arrives just in the knick of time, there's no telling what Marcia would get up to next if she dealt to the dugong calf but I was hoping she wouldn't hear the orphan ducks quacking, and manages to calm her down some. Enough at least to allow him to hit the water to go investigate the drowned camper van, hey he's an alpha yuppie male that's what they do in any aquatic situation, it's like a natural urge or something. Surprisingly Peter doesn't come under marine attack, where's a decent great white when you need one, but finds there is a body in the submerged camper van.

This finally is the closest Director Eggleston and writer Everett De Roche get to supernatural terroritory. They offer no explanation as to what has happened to the family who have vanished, but are at least hinting that nature might have got a bit stroppy and taken the bit between it's teeth. Very enigmatic development and Eggleston has the tension nailed, you expect an explanation for the happenings but neither the Director or De Roche are about to give you one. End of day is an explanation really required?

Long Weekend is a two punch movie, i.e for the vast majority of it's running time there are only two characters on screen. Australian legend John Hargreaves (Peter) is well cast as the self centered yuppie who needs his toys to entertain himself. Nice touch with Peter clearly preferring to spend time with cricket the dog than Marcie. Hey if the cricket's on and it's the last session what can we say. Briony Behets (Marcia) is equally well cast and nails the requirement of the yuppie wife with perhaps a bit too much time on her hands, who has come to the realisation that her marriage is pretty much a sham. In her own way Marcia is equally as shallow and self centered as Peter and Ms Behets is hitting that one over the fence at long on.

T&A goes buck wild in Long Weekend folks as Eggleston carries on the proud traditions of Oz exploitation cinema. Briony Behets gets the girls out on a few occasions, spends great swaths of the movie in various stages of undress, and really really enjoys one of those bodice ripper chick novels. Actually from my notes I have a second set of boobs at 31.03 into the movie, but unfortunately it turns out to be topless Barbie. Bit of plastic fantastic for you there, but what the heck considering the silicon going down in Hollywood currently we'll call that an assisst. Girls get John Hargreaves charging about in his shorts shirtless for most of the movie, dig on in there Ladies.

Another of the strengths of Long Weekend is the score by Michael Carlos. Besides the normal horror style orchestrial movements we get discordant notes, and jarring riffs. Eggleston uses it to perfection, interlacing the music with the sounds of the local fauna, and for some scenes going dead quiet and letting the visuals speak for themselves. Slight gag at one stage with Peter singing the "Teddy Bear's Picnic" song, and of course getting one great huge freaking surprise in the woods today.

Summary Execution

A remake of Long Weekend hits cinemas this year folks, and the signs are already worrying. Reviews are starting to appear on U.S sites, indicating screeners or advanced sessions are going down up North, yet there's no movement at the station on Down Under sites horror or otherwise. The danger here is that the remake is complete crap compared to the original and the Distributors are trying to get decent sound bites from foreign reviewers who have no idea about the history of the movie. Notably the release date for the remake has been scrubbed from upcoming movie lists, which would also indicate the Distributors know they have a lemon on their hands. We'll give full coverage of the remake regardless of quality when it surfaces in Australia.

Full recommendation on Long Weekend, it's going to be a movie you are guaranteed to enjoy. Well okay if you like movies and aren't the sort of post MTV low attention span moron Hollywood is currently catering for with the likes of Cloverfield and other fodder. Eggleston takes his time to build tension with Long Weekend and will hold you spell bound with his vision. Ready for a day at the beach?

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...