Long Weekend (1978 film)

Last updated

Long Weekend
Long-Weekend.jpg
Theatrical film poster
Directed by Colin Eggleston
Screenplay by Everett De Roche
Produced byColin Eggleston
Starring John Hargreaves
Briony Behets
Cinematography Vincent Monton
Edited by Brian Kavanagh
Music byMichael Carlos
Production
company
Dugong Films
Distributed by Hoyts Distribution
Release date
Running time
92 minutes [2]
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetAU$425,000 [3] or $270,000 [4]

Long Weekend is an Australian psychological thriller film shot in 1977 and first shown in 1978. The film was directed by Colin Eggleston and stars John Hargreaves and Briony Behets.

Contents

Plot

Peter and Marcia, along with their dog Cricket, go for a weekend camping trip to a secluded beach. There is tension between the couple, and it appears that each may have a lover. Marcia is not keen on taking this trip but does so grudgingly. On the way there, Peter's discarded cigarette butt ignites a small fire, and the car accidentally kills a kangaroo.

Once they have arrived and set up camp at the edge of a wooded area near the beach, the couple cause more environmental damage, including the theft and destruction of an eagle's egg, the killing of a dugong, what appears to be the killing of a throng of birds, and the needless partial chopping of trees. [5]

Peter and Marcia bicker, and it is revealed that a crucial source of mutual resentment is an abortion she had following an affair with another man. As tensions rise between the self-absorbed and environmentally toxic couple, nature starts to strike back: first by an eagle and possum attacking Peter, and then through more insidious means. [6] Marcia, desperate to get away, steals Peter's car and leaves him alone with night drawing in. Peter arms himself with a spear-gun which he fires blindly at a noise during his troubled night.

The next morning, Peter sees Marcia's dead body impaled by the spear, and finds his car abandoned in what appears to be a mesh of spider webs. He drives away, but eventually has to ditch the car when it gets stuck in mud. Peter stumbles upon the main road after hours of searching. He steps out to wave down a truck. But a bird attacks its driver, causing him to lose control, and the truck hits and kills Peter.

Cast

Production

The script was the first feature script written by Everett De Roche, an experienced Australian TV writer. He was inspired by a trip he took on an Easter weekend to an isolated beach in New South Wales:

I started LW as a way to avoid the TV-cop-show doldrums while still convincing myself I was "working". LW was a unique project because I began with no outline, no notes or research, very little idea as to where the story was going, and absolutely zero knowledge of screenplays. I simply started at page 1, scene 1, and made it up as I went. I had only a vague plan to write a kind of environmental horror story. My premise was that Mother Earth has her own auto-immune system, so when humans start behaving like cancer cells, She attacks. I also wanted to avoid a JAWS-like critter film. I wanted the LW beasties to all be benign-looking and not overtly aggressive. [7]

De Roche wrote the script in ten days. [8] He showed it to Colin Eggleston, who had worked with him at Crawfords, and Eggleston decided to make the movie. [7] Funds were obtained from Film Victoria and the Australian Film Commission.

Shooting took place in March–April 1977 in Melbourne and near Bega in south-east New South Wales. A second unit in Tasmania captured scenes with Tasmanian Devils and Tiger quolls. [9] The ending was originally different according to De Roche:

I wrote an enormously complicated sequence for near the end where the animals give Peter a second chance. They want him to wise up, and he is at the point of doing so when he hears a truck in the distance. He dashes off to the highway, and the animals decide there is no hope. Poetically, they leave it to another man to kill him. [8]

However this scene was too difficult to shoot because it involved animals and was cut. [8]

Release

The film premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in October 1978. [1]

The film tied with Invasion of the Body Snatchers to win the Antennae II Award at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, won the Special Jury Award at 1978's Paris Film Festival and won Best Film, Prize of the International Critics' Jury for director Eggleston and Best Actor for Hargreaves. [10]

It was not released theatrically in Australia until 1979, and was a commercial disappointment. [3]

Critical reception

AllMovie wrote, "Long Weekend is little more than an extended cautionary tale about the karmic foolishness of disrespecting nature. [11] DVD Times praised the film, and also commented on its obscurity: "when an obviously well made and executed little thriller comes along, an exercise in controlled dread and eerie atmosphere that's really effective, you have to ponder the reasons why the vast majority passed on it. Early Australian cinema seems cursed in this category." [12]

De Roche later expressed some dissatisfaction with the film:

Unfortunately, the bush comes across as a threat too early; it should have emerged as a threat only after the audience had sympathized with the animals. And I don’t think that sympathy is there. Long Weekend would have been much better if the audience had been told at the beginning that Peter and Marcia were going to die. This way, it wouldn’t have had to sympathize with them, and could have concerned itself solely with when this was going to happen. Such is the essence of suspense. [8]

Remake

In 2008, Australian director Jamie Blanks shot a remake of the film (alternately titled Nature's Grave). The film starred James Caviezel and Claudia Karvan. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Jeepers Creepers</i> (2001 film) Film by Victor Salva

Jeepers Creepers is a 2001 horror film written and directed by Victor Salva. It stars Gina Philips and Justin Long as siblings returning home for spring break who encounter a violent truck driver portrayed by Jonathan Breck. The film takes its name from the 1938 song, featured in the film under a version by Paul Whiteman. Patricia Belcher and Eileen Brennan also appear in supporting roles, with Salva making a cameo appearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sitges Film Festival</span> Annual Spanish film festival

The Sitges Film Festival and also translated as Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia and originally the International Week of Fantasy and Horror Movies, is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specialises in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost international festivals. Established in 1968, the festival takes place every year, usually in early October.

<i>Bluey</i> (1976 TV series) 1976 crime drama television series

Bluey is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network in 1976.

<i>The Comeback</i> (1978 film) 1978 British film by Pete Walker

The Comeback is a 1978 British psychological horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker and starring Jack Jones, Pamela Stephenson, and David Doyle. Its plot follows a successful but dormant American singer who retreats to a remote manor in Surrey to record an album; there, he is followed by a psychopath—donning a hag mask—who murdered his ex-wife.

<i>Harlequin</i> (film) 1980 Australian film by Simon Wincer

Harlequin is a 1980 Australian thriller film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, David Hemmings and Broderick Crawford. The film is a modern-day retelling of the historical figure Rasputin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Franklin (director)</span> Australian film director (1948–2007)

Richard Franklin was an Australian film director.

Briony Behets is an English-born Australian former actress who found fame acting in Australian television soap operas of the 1970s and 1980s.

<i>Storm Warning</i> (2007 film) 2007 Australian film

Storm Warning is a 2007 Australian horror film directed by Jamie Blanks and starring Nadia Farès and Robert Taylor.

<i>Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!</i> 2008 documentary film directed by Mark Hartley

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! is a 2008 documentary film about the Australian New Wave of 1970s and 1980s low-budget cinema. The film was written and directed by Mark Hartley, who interviewed over eighty Australian, American and British actors, directors, screenwriters and producers, including Quentin Tarantino, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, George Lazenby, George Miller, Barry Humphries, Stacy Keach, John Seale and Roger Ward.

<i>Long Weekend</i> (2008 film) 2008 Australian film

Long Weekend is a 2008 Australian psychological horror film and the remake of the 1978 Australian film Long Weekend. It was directed by Jamie Blanks.

<i>Patrick</i> (1978 film) 1978 Australian film

Patrick is a 1978 Australian science fiction horror film directed by Richard Franklin and written by Everett De Roche. The film popularised Ozploitation films in other territories. A remake was released in 2013.

<i>The Human Centipede (First Sequence)</i> 2009 film by Tom Six

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a 2009 Dutch independent body horror film written, directed and co-produced by Tom Six. The film concerns a deranged German surgeon who kidnaps three tourists and conjoins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming the eponymous "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as Josef Heiter, the creator of the centipede; and Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, and Akihiro Kitamura as Heiter's victims.

Antony I. Ginnane is an Australian film producer best known for his work in the exploitation field. He was head of the Screen Producers Association of Australia from 2008 to 2011. He has been described as "Australia's Roger Corman" or Australia's equivalent to Robert Lippert.

Everett De Roche (1946–2014) was an American-Australian screenwriter who worked extensively in the Australian film and TV industry. He was best known for his work in the thriller and horror genre, with such credits as Long Weekend, Patrick, and Roadgames.

<i>Snapshot</i> (film) 1979 film by Simon Wincer

Snapshot is a 1979 Australian thriller film directed by Simon Wincer in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Sigrid Thornton, Chantal Contouri and Robert Bruning. The film was shot on an estimated budget of $300,000.

<i>The Rover</i> (2014 film) 2014 film by David Michôd

The Rover is a 2014 Australian dystopian Western drama film written and directed by David Michôd and based on a story by Michôd and Joel Edgerton. It is a contemporary western taking place in the Australian outback, ten years after a global economic collapse. The film stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, and features Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones, and Susan Prior. It premiered out of competition in the Midnight Screenings section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2014.

<i>Mindscape</i> (2013 film) 2013 film

Mindscape is a 2013 internationally co-produced psychological thriller film, and the directorial debut of Spanish filmmaker Jorge Dorado. The film stars Taissa Farmiga, Mark Strong, Noah Taylor, and Brian Cox. The screenplay was written by Guy Holmes and follows John, a detective with the ability to enter people's memories; he takes on the case of a brilliant but troubled 16-year-old girl, Anna, to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of psychological trauma.

Hunger is a 1986 Australian TV film about a Romanian refugee who settles in Australia.

<i>Roadgames</i> 1981 Australian film

Roadgames is a 1981 Australian thriller film directed by Richard Franklin and starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. The film follows a truck driver travelling across Australia who, along with the help of a hitchhiker, seeks to track down a serial killer who is butchering women and dumping their dismembered bodies along desolate highways.

<i>Wrath of Man</i> 2021 action thriller film directed by Guy Ritchie

Wrath of Man is a 2021 action thriller film directed by Guy Ritchie, who co-wrote with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. It is loosely based on the 2004 French film Cash Truck. It is Ritchie's fourth directorial collaboration with lead actor Jason Statham, and the first since Revolver (2005). Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Chris Reilly, Josh Hartnett, Laz Alonso, Raúl Castillo, DeObia Oparei, Eddie Marsan and Scott Eastwood appear in supporting roles. In the film, H (Statham) is a new cash truck driver in Los Angeles whose thwarting of a robbery leads to his skillset with guns and mysterious past being questioned.

References

  1. 1 2 "FESTIVAL ARCHIVES - Sitges Film Festival - Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya".
  2. Film Society of Lincoln Center Announces Scary Movies 3
  3. 1 2 David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p247-248
  4. "Long Weekend", Cinema Papers, July 1977 p57
  5. "Long Weekend – Horrors". Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  6. "Tierhorror.de – Long Weekend (1978)". Archived from the original on 17 December 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
  7. 1 2 An Interview with Everett de Roche, Spectacular Optical, 1 June 2012 accessed 19 October 2012
  8. 1 2 3 4 Paul Davies, "Everett De Roche", Senses of Cinema, 12 July 2008 accessed 26 October 2012
  9. "Long Weekend Filming Locations". IMDb . Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  10. IMDB Awards
  11. Armstrong, Derek. "Long Weekend (1978)". AllMovie . Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  12. Gibron, Bill (27 September 2005). "Long Weekend: SE : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". DVD Talk . Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  13. "Tierhorror.de – Long Weekend (2008)". Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2009.