Australian Horror Beyond National Cinema
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From go to whoa, Crush is retro without any aspect of pastiche, and while relatively inoffensive, it offers a pedestrian tour through standard genre territory. 26 • Metro Magazine 164 Fatal distractions: australian horror beyond national cinema Alexandra Heller-Nicholas looks at the state of Australian horror filmmaking, and finds that, for the most part, recent features come up wanting. ince PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (Peter Weir, 1975) marked the intersection of a blossoming Australian national film culture and the strange and the spooky, hopes for the broader film industry have often been pinned upon shadowy cinemat- Sic ventures. Mark Hartley’s documentary Not Quite Hollywood (2008) summarised the most recent manifestation of this dark ambition for post-Wolf Creek Australian horror, declaring that Greg Mclean’s 2005 international success story had triggered a new wave of locally produced genre film. Without wishing to dwell on the obvious, it is clear that the oth- er films lauded in Hartley’s documentary – Jamie Blanks’ Storm Warning (2007) and Long Weekend (2008), and Mclean’s own Rogue (2007) – did not quite set the world on fire. This is not to suggest that there has been a total absence of quality material produced within the generic confines of horror since 2005 in Aus- tralia, as a film such as Steven Kastrissios’ ultra-violent revenge tale The Horseman (2008) so poignantly demonstrates. But five years after Wolf Creek, and in the wake of its much-discussed success, horror appears to have become a natural choice for aspiring local filmmakers to make their mark. Four titles alone – Prey (Oscar D’Roccster, 2009), Crush (Jeffrey Gerritsen and John Metro Magazine 164 • 27 V. Soto, 2009), Coffin Rock (Rupert Glasson, tions) have been involved in talk of an Amer- filled the same role. its adult subject matter 2009) and Bad Bush (Samuel Genocchio, ican remake.1 One can only speculate that places it far above horror’s assumed teen- 2009) – debuted in the last half of 2009. if this happens, the revisionism required by age realm, the painstakingly fetishised win- local critics to embrace this neglected hor- try Australian coastal locale is beautifully The number of horror films that are funded, ror gem will be as rigorous and vocal as it is shot, and the performances of its main cast produced and distributed in this country hypocritical. (particularly Lisa chappell in the lead role of therefore raises key issues for debate. But Jessie) cannot be faulted. On these counts are we asking the wrong questions? Or, at The case of Thirst suggests that local criti- alone, Coffin Rock should be a satisfying least, are the questions we are asking too cism has pushed Australian horror to a viewing experience and a likely contender narrowly focused on these films’ status as point where it is dominated by an untenable to carry the Wolf Creek baton. Australian films alone? As the multitude either/or: the choice is between being uber- of positive non-Australian reviews of Wolf Australian or anti-Australian. On one hand, But, as films ranging from Night of the Liv- Creek testify, Mclean’s debut made its glo- the self-conscious drenching of local horror ing Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) to Par- bal impact not only because of its ‘Austral- with gratuitous ‘McAustraliana’ comes at anormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007) suggest, ianness’, but because it was also a bloody the cost of developing a less contrived na- high production values are far from essen- good horror film. That it so eloquently cap- tial to a successful horror film. Big names tured a truly Australian sensibility was, for may have pulling power in terms of funding non-Australian audiences, merely a bonus. Coffin Rock wears its and marketing, but a brief look at some of So should Australian analyses of locally debt to Fatal Attraction the biggest horror releases over the last ten produced horror hinge upon their status as on its sleeve, but its years shows as many new names as famil- ‘Australian films’ first and ‘horror films’ sec- surface twist of swapping iar ones. From Dracula and Frankenstein to ond, or is it more important that they func- Glenn Close’s iconic The Fog (John carpenter, 1980) to The Blair tion primarily as engaging horror films first bunny-boiler with a Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and eduardo and foremost? baby kangaroo- Sánchez, 1999) and beyond, environment bashing Irish often plays a crucial role in horror, but the Wolf Creek tells us that a combination is adolescent male seemingly obligatory ‘porning’ of the land- ideal: being both a good Australian film and is never addressed as scape in Australian horror ignores just how a good horror film is not and should not be anything more than a vital it is aesthetically as well as themati- impossible. This is demonstrated in non- superficial variation on a cally to films like Wolf Creek and Picnic at Australian national cinemas, most notably theme. Hanging Rock. by the explosion of the internationally popu- lar J-Horror phenomenon in the 1990s. But even rising above its self-conscious Aus- the mollycoddling much Australian horror tional identity, while also impeding the de- tralianism, then, Coffin Rock has more po- has received from critics with little interest in velopment of a healthy, natural and organic tential to alienate a horror audience than to the genre suggests that the current equation expansion of capital-A, capital-H Austral- please it. The most immediate issue is its is loaded perhaps a little too heavily towards ian Horror. But on the other hand, many lo- title: coffin Rock is already a familiar name the national at the expense of the generic. cally produced horror films appear to be to horror fans as it was where the zeitgeist- And in the worst-case scenario, this means trying to consciously transcend paying this defining The Blair Witch Project was set. it that local audiences miss out on enjoying re- sort of lip service by overtly de-contaminat- is either through arrogance, coincidence or ally fun horror films that the rest of the world ing themselves of any Australian themes or flagrant disinterest that the Australian Cof- might embrace despite their country of ori- motifs in the hope that they will be able to fin Rock dismisses any associations with its gin. A case in point is Rod Hardy’s 1979 film stand up abroad.2 is there a step forward? namesake. in fan circles at least, it could be Thirst. On an intrinsic level, this Melbourne- is there a way to attain Wolf Creek’s careful assumed that writer/director Rupert Glas- produced vampire film is a sophisticated, balance between being an ‘Australian film’ son’s lack of interest and knowledge of hor- self-referential exploration of local paracin- and a ‘horror film’, despite the nebulous- ror render him little more than a ‘genre tour- ema, as its female protagonist tries to fight ness of both of these terms? Or do films ist’ attempting to cash in on horror’s current the temptation of an imported phenomenon like Coffin Rock, Bad Bush, Prey and Crush mainstream acceptance.3 to retain her ‘true identity’. Like most hor- suggest that rather than opening the neural ror fans, she gives in to the visceral thrills – floodgates, Wolf Creek was nothing but a There are concerns that rise above the pe- imported or not, national loyalties pale next flash in the pan? culiarities of horror fandom, however. Coffin to the gritty perversions of exploitation. The Rock follows the story of a married couple dismissal of and disinterest in Thirst locally The usual suspects desperately trying to conceive a child. The has curiously not altered the fact that it po- increasingly frustrated wife, Jessie, has sex tentially retains an international audience: ru- Of all four films, Coffin Rock stands out with the strange young irish newcomer evan mours were still circulating in 2008 that cult from the others on a number of counts. its (Sam Parsonson), while drunk. After finding horror directors Joe Dante (Gremlins I and II, highly polished production values tran- herself pregnant, Jessie realises that evan’s The Howling, Innerspace, Twilight Zone: The scend the budgetary constraints under infatuation has evolved into a violent, stalk- Movie) and Mick Garris (the mastermind of which it was made, and producer David ing rampage as he terrorises the couple. the successful Masters of Horror television Lightfoot’s name brings in an explicit as- Coffin Rock wears its debt to Fatal Attraction series and a slew of Steven King adapta- sociation with Wolf Creek, on which he (Adrian Lyne, 1987) on its sleeve, but its sur- 28 • Metro Magazine 164 face twist of swapping Glenn close’s iconic bunny-boiler with a baby kangaroo-bashing irish adolescent male is never addressed as anything more than a superficial variation on a theme. Despite its surface concern with gender and power, then, this film is funda- mentally disinterested in engaging with ei- ther, and it appears to deliberately avoid the very real issues that hinge upon its often concerning assumptions. Aside from the confusing necessity to make the villainous evan a racial Other,4 that Jessie clearly asks evan to stop during sex establishes a com- plex and sophisticated ideological web that the film fails to address outside of the barest of melodramatic terms. This rape becomes ambiguous in the film’s ethical construction of Jessie: as a problematic morality tale that appears to be teaching the dangers of mon- strous-thirty-something-women-who-will- do-anything-to-conceive, the film is explicit Previous Page, clockwise from toP that Jessie is the one for whom the lesson is left: Crush – AnnA (emmA lung); phil intended.