Snowtown

[Rose]

When I went to Australia recently, I watched the Australian movie Snowtown on the plane. It was without a doubt, the most deeply disturbing movie I've ever seen. Not the subject matter - I've seen plenty of movies about serial killers before - it was the filming I guess. At times it bordered on a snuff movie. Even thinking about it now makes my skin crawl.

Maybe it was because I was already sad with my mother just having died, or that I was the only one awake in a big dark plane, or perhaps because Snowtown is only a few miles from my hometown in South Australia. I don't know - but it was so incredibly dark and disturbing that even months later I have trouble thinking about it.

Has anyone else seen it? At the time it wasn't even in the theatres yet - just on Qantas flights I guess.

[Sinn]

I haven't seen the movie but I do remember the Bodies In the Barrels murders. Creepy shit.

[aurora]

Never heard of it, and if it is that realistic, I don't think I will be planning to! Had to google the original Snowtown incident.

[Smudge]

I hadn't heard about this movie until now. After reading the comments by others who have watched the movie, it sounds like they feel the same as you, Rose. It seems to be a very deep and disturbing movie, and for that reason I won't watch it. I love horror(goreless) movies, and the creepier the better, but Snowtown sounds like it goes into areas where I won't want to venture.

[Rose]

Pauline, it goes into areas of your psyche that you didn't even know existed! The level of disturbance was profound. I walked up and down the plane aisle to try to shake it after I'd watched it, went down the back and talked to the attendants, watched "Rio" to take my mind off it ... none of that helped at all. And it's still with me, four months later. :(

I'd love to talk to somebody who's seen it, because maybe I think that would help, but to date I've never found another person (that I know) who's seen it.

[robyn48]

Geez. now you make me want to watch it Rose. Is it the level of violence that is so disturbing?

[Rose]

Hard to explain, Robyn. Yes, it's definitely violent (I'm not one for violent movies) but it's an up-close-and-personal type of violence that impacts your psyche. And the movie isn't even so much about the killings of the "bodies in the barrels", but about the dynamics between the family and friends of John Bunting.

Here's a review I just found that might help explain it.


I have never written a review before - of film, television, book or any other. In fact, I've never written anything.

But having, what I can only describe as, endured "Snowtown" for the longest two hours of my life, I feel compelled to put to paper what an extraordinary accomplishment it is.

On the one hand.

On the other, I damn the director, writer, producer and actors for making it. Or at least, making it so well.

Because if this film had been made badly, it would be forgotten and brushed under the carpet. Instead, it will be revered as a blueprint of all realistic horror, a benchmark to which others will undoubtedly be judged. Which is an accolade that should be nowhere near someone as vile as John Bunting.

This is not your usual movie-goer horror. Save for one never-ending torture scene, there is little gore, blood or screaming. Just empty lives, slowly dissolved by an evil one.

For me, the Saw franchise was aimed at the teen market. And whilst there is no doubt that it is horrifically gory, I don't think I would lose sleep over my teenage child watching it. However, if I discovered my teenage child had watched "Snowtown" I think I would want to spend the next week propped up at the end of their bed, making sure they knew I was there. "Just if you need me."

Following the perspective of 16 year-old Jamie Vlassakis, the film traps you in the room as a silent participator, whilst he is befriended and groomed by Bunting.

By the time it had finished I felt as though I was complicit - that having merely watched had turned me into an accomplice. On more than one occasion I was close to switching it off.

But such is the masterful direction, the suffocatingly silent screams of emotion and need to see whether the boy will escape from the hell he is zombie-footing towards, you feel you owe it to him to ride it out.

Before watching, I knew only one thing about this film - that it was based on a true story. The gaps left in the plot by the director are intimidatingly adept at disorientating you, making you feel as manipulated as the individuals re-shaped at will by the serial killer John Bunting.

The treatment of the murders is so skilfully handled - at times using voice recordings of the victims to tell you that time has passed and the depths of evil he has swum to have increased. At others, using morally numb expressions to warn you of the horrors either being carried out, or to come.

The torture scene itself is abhorrent, yet disturbingly hypnotic. Where I would usually look away, I couldn't and found myself glued to what was unfolding; mentally pleading for it to stop. It, in itself, is a reduced study of everything John Bunting pursued. The acting from both Pittaway and Henshall, in this scene, but not alone, is worthy of any peer or award.

Henshall is magnificent. Charismatic, believable and chilling - initially as an undeniable, albeit ruthless, role model in a town bereft of individuals with self-worth or respect. And latterly unfolding to reveal a cold, blood hungry psychopath.

The stench of death truly is palpable, of both flesh and society. It doesn't make you want to hide behind your sofa, it makes you want to claw at your sofa so that you can curl up and hide inside it.

Recommending this film to your friends would be a bit like recommending hard drugs to them. It may open their eyes - but at what cost? It is something that should not be your choice, you don't need the responsibility.

My final words must go to the director, Justin Kurzel, for whom I understand this to be a directorial debut. I genuinely don't know how. I have watched many films, almost always with an amateur critic's eye, and this ranks up there as one of the most soul trembling films I've seen.

Please turn your hand to action or comedy. I don't think I can face another of this genre from you.

[Rose]

Reference to review:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1680114/

[robyn48]

Wow, what a fabulous review. It sounds like this is exactly how it affected you as well.

[Rose]

And just in case anyone is thinking that I'm recommending this movie, I'll take a quote out of the review, which is exactly how I feel.


Recommending this film to your friends would be a bit like recommending hard drugs to them. It may open their eyes - but at what cost? It is something that should not be your choice, you don't need the responsibility.

[Smudge]

I told Jim about this movie and he is keen to watch it. Jim takes movie watching very seriously, so anything that affects a viewer like that, sounds interesting to a movie buff like him.
We checked on Amazon and you can buy it for close to $70.00. I guess Jim will wait until the price come down some before he watches it.

[aurora]

Here is a wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowtown_murders) article about the murders....even ready that is gruesome!

[Jacaranda]

I am so glad I didn't hit the button to watch it when I went home! I entertained myself with the English comedies.

My friend who watched the movie posted on her facebook a plea for everyone on her friends' list to NOT watch the movie. She said it was the most vile thing she'd ever seen and didn't want any of us to suffer because of watching it.

I find learning about serial killers and murderers very interesting and own dozens of books on the studies of them but I don't think I will bother with this one! Two of my friends being so negatively affected is enough for me!

To be honest I can't even watch Dexter after seeing the episode of him about to drill into someone's eyes! So I'm sure Snowtown will probably give me nightmares! lol

[tanya]

the movie was filmed around the corner from my house...

someone i know saw the movie when it was released here (limited cinema release in adelaide, cant answer for the rest of the country), and they said it was incredibly realistic, and very factual, going by everything that came out when the bodies were found and the subsequent investigations...

[Smudge]

Is this movie gory?

[Rose]

Pauline, without going in-depth, it has one scene in it that I would term as incredibily violent - it's pretty much a torture scene - but not particularly gory.

Teresa, I was wondering if you had seen it, because I think you and I went to Australia on the same day. So it would have been in your movie line-up as well. I'm glad you didn't watch it.

Tanya, I'm not surprised that it had a "limited cinema release".

Another thing that got to me, was the depictions of the horrible poverty in the northern suburbs of Adelaide.

[Rose]

I told Jim about this movie and he is keen to watch it. Jim takes movie watching very seriously, so anything that affects a viewer like that, sounds interesting to a movie buff like him.
We checked on Amazon and you can buy it for close to $70.00. I guess Jim will wait until the price come down some before he watches it.

I've never been able to figure out why, but it seems that DVDs of Aussie movies are always super-expensive.

[Lolls]

I havent watched the movie . seen a littl bit preview but I have seen a re enactment for a crime show. That was enough for me, it had me thinking dont make friends with neighbours or anyone else for that matter. I think Rose summed it up with being close to an actual snuff film without being a snuff film. Not the usual run of the mill fiction horror.

[tanya]

Another thing that got to me, was the depictions of the horrible poverty in the northern suburbs of Adelaide.
yep, this is a pov area... but most of it is self-inflicted. there is an incredibly high rate of multi-generational unemployment out here, and now there are rumours going around that the north's biggest employer, the holden plant at elizabeth south, will shut down within 4 years...

also, since little johnny and his band of merry elves (the howard government) invented the baby bonus, there are an awful lot of what i call "baby bonus brats" getting around. you can tell these families from others, because the kids are spaced 4 1/2 years apart...