WAKE IN FRIGHT

Last time I screened WAKE IN FRIGHT I asked my guests what kind of film they thought they just watched. Some described it as a thriller, others a horror film and a black comedy. One guest went so far to describe it as documentary about why no-one should ever visit Australia 🤣

I've watched it maybe half a dozen times myself and somehow the answer is all of the above.

The film follows John Grant, a schoolteacher stranded in The Yabba, a remote Australian mining town that could pass for Broken Hill. What should be a brief stopover for John gradually turns into a nightmare of gambling, drinking, excess, and increasingly poor decisions as he begins to fall deeper into a trap of his own making.

I'm Australian. I've lived in four states and visited outback communities multiple times and I can assure you almost nothing in WAKE IN FRIGHT feels exaggerated. The people John encounters aren't movie villains. They're often gregarious and eager to include him, which is probably why his predicament feels all the more terrifying. Instead, he slowly become complicit in his own downfall.

On the surface it's a story about an outsider trapped in an unfamiliar environment. Beneath that, it's a film about masculinity, conformity, self-destruction, and the strange social pressures that can make seemingly intelligent people do things they know they shouldn't.

The Australian outback has rarely been photographed more beautifully. Ted Kotcheff captures both its grandeur and its hostility. The  horizons stretch forever. You can feel the blinding heat through the screen with every sweat drop on close-up.

If you've never seen WAKE IN FRIGHT before, prepare for one of the most unforgettable debuts to Australian cinema imaginable. If you have seen it before, strap yourself in and let's take this ride together again!