The marriage of Marcia (Briony Behets) and Peter (John Hargreaves) is more or less over since a botched abortion nearly killed her. It was only the complications that led to Peter's discovery of his wives' pregnancy or that he wasn't the child's father. You shouldn't have too much compassion with him, though. He seems to be all asshole all the time, so I wasn't all that surprised his wife cheated on him. Still, Peter seems interested in saving the marriage (or murdering Marcia - the film makes some very clever allusions to his unconscious wish to do so). What could be a better way to do this than to go camping on a beach in the Outback, miles from any other human being? Especially when one keeps in mind that Marcia hates the outdoors.
When the couple (after much bickering and screaming - you better get used to it) finally makes camp at their destination, strange things start to happen. Animals -even dead ones - are acting weird and aggressive, even the trees and elementary forces like fire and decay seem to become ever more malevolent.
Marcia gets the message quickly, but Peter doesn't feel anything strange for quite some time. When he finally agrees, it is already to late for them. Nature itself turns against them.
And the second eco-horror film for me in a row, only much more subtle than Fessenden's Wendigo.
Long Weekend is a mood and character piece that kept me on my toes most of its running time. From the first frame on, director/producer Colin Eggleston uses intelligent camera work and the alienness of nature to imbalance the viewer. At first it's not clear if the couple will just go on and kill each other without any supernatural agency. One could argue that nature, after being misused by both to work off their aggressions, just acts out what it has learned from them, but the feeling of a kind of abstract evil that pervades the movie speaks of different things. I felt very much reminded of Algernon Blackwood's excellent story "The Willows".
The atmosphere of Long Weekend is incredible - we don't see that many strange occurrences at all. Most of the film's effect is based on the things the viewer brings with her or imagines, its qualities are more felt than seen.
Of course something that is basically a two person piece without a lot of action wouldn't work without good acting. Both leads turn their roles into believable, breathing persons, who might be thoroughly unsympathetic to some. I personally dislike to see people suffer, even if they are highly imperfect.
I'm not sure if it is correct to call this "eco-horror". There are moments in the film when nature reacts directly to attacks on its integrity, sure, but those reactions are in a style a petty tyrant would enjoy, and not of the nobleness the more respectful films of the sub-genre would show.
As a lover of horror films of the Seventies, I also highly approve of the ironic and consequent ending.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment