REVIEWS Snowtown REVIEWED BY FRANK HATHERLEY
Buyer beware: Snowtown is no ordinary serial- killer movie. There is no charismatic Hannibal Lecter cooking up thrills, no Wolf Creek super- hermit delivering hold-my-hand multiplex hor- rors. In a triumph of naturalism, debut director Justin Kurzel has brilliantly recreated scenes from Australia’s most notorious killing/torture spree. Sadistic, stomach-churning and at times
unwatchable, the lengthy, humourless movie received its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival and is as confronting as anything in this genre. Though Kurzel’s stated aim is to “engage with an audience” about the notorious crimes, maximum censorship restrictions may keep his film in a ghoulish ghetto and its breakout box- office potential could be limited. The title, powerful in Australia, will have no
meaning elsewhere. Though real-life psychopath John Bunting’s multiple victims were discovered stuffed into barrels in an abandoned bank in the small rural community of Snowtown, the movie is set where most of the killings took place, in a bleak suburb of Adelaide, 145 kilometres away. There, in an atmosphere of desperate 1990s
poverty, ignorance and hopelessness, tight-lipped Elizabeth (Harris) is raising her three boys. The eldest is lanky, long-haired Jamie (Pittaway),
CRITICS’ WEEK
Aus. 2010. 115mins Director Justin Kurzel Production company Warp Films Australia International sales Protagonist Pictures,
www.protagonistpictures. com Producers Anna McLeish, Sarah Shaw Executive producers Robin Gutch, Mark Herbert Screenplay Shaun Grant Cinematography Adam Arkapaw Editor Veronika Jenet Production designer Fiona Crombie Music Jed Kurzel Main cast Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris
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already in sexual danger from a neighbour, soon a different sort of prey to ‘new dad’ John (Henshall). Daniel Henshall recreates this amoral predator
in frightening detail. At first smiling and friendly, his sordid disregard for life soon infects the pathetic household and the bunch of hopeless drifters he attracts. The slaughter of kangaroos and dogs gives way to the wholesale destruction of human enemies: perceived “faggots” are high on his hit list. “No-one gives a shit,” is his watch cry and, indeed, nobody does care for the missing per- sons regularly dumped in his wake. Pittaway’s development from wary teen to
bloated killer is also convincing. In fact, the entire large cast — many of them local first-timers — are superbly believable. Handheld camerawork by Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom) adds absolute verisimilitude to the grizzly recreation of blood, turmoil and agony. If it’s sodomy, deep-dyed misogyny, full fron-
tals, toenail extraction and ever-so-slow garrot- ting you’re after, Snowtown might be for you. Others might best regard it as a public service warning: should you happen to come across such people as Bunting, do please set off very quickly in the opposite direction.
n 28 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2011
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