Wake In Fright

aka: Outback
Australia 1971, 114 minutes
Dir. Ted Kotcheff
Rating: [M]
Genres: Cult, Suspense/Crime

Feat. Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay

Aroview: After many years in obscurity, this drama has been dusted off and deservingly reappraised as an Australian classic - a waking nightmare of "beer and sunshine" that combines the twin threats of Australia's formidable desert heat and its 'mob rules' drinking mentality.

The little-known Gary Bond is superb as the middle-class schoolteacher adrift in a remote desert township, who must ingratiate himself with the eccentric, hard-case locals whose amoral, unpredictable ways are blurred in alcoholic ritual. While it fits well into the 'Australian Gothic' mould, it avoids the cheap tricks of a 'genre' film, but is provocative and layered enough to linger long in post-viewing discussion and beyond.

NZ International Film Festival 2009
Adopt-a-Movie Kindly Adopted by Jesse Rubenstein