When a suburban couple goes camping for the weekend at a remote beach, they discover that nature isn't in an accommodating mood.
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Reviews
I wanted to but couldn't!
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
I honestly don't understand why this movie flopped when it was first aired in 1979. It is one of the best films in the horror genre. I saw it years ago as a child and it was one of the films that stayed with me.Long Weekend is a very low key horror. The tension is not ramped up straight away, but builds slowly and steadily. Like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, there is no pat answer to what is actually happening, only that Peter and Marcia, (John Hargreaves and Briony Behets) are not welcome in their part of the bush. And for good reason, neither Peter or Marcia show any respect towards the bush or it's inhabitants. They carelessly start bushfires, slaughter animals with their negligence and destroy their surroundings.Peter and Marcia are not a very likable couple either, they constantly bicker and it is clear to see that their marriage is in serious trouble.The acting from both John Hargreaves and Briony Behets is excellent, both give a brilliant performance as the rapidly estranging couple that literally come under siege by their surroundings.The final scenes of this film are truly harrowing and I promise, ones that you won't forget. do yourself a favour, see the original before you see the remake. This is what Aussie cinema used to be like. Brilliant and original.Long Weekend is considered to be an Ozploitation film and even though is was a commercial flop in Australia, it was a huge hit overseas.
Huge fan of killer animal movies and this as been on watch list for a few years, I really looking forward to this and the remake, I was going to watch them back to back.This movie takes while to getting going, I don't mind some slow build up unless there go some where.I found most of this movie very boring, the couple were very annoying, who could not care less if they were killed by these animals. I Felt bored and frustrated throughout the movie, even Animals attacks scenes will really dull, Could have been done better!I don't think acting the was bad, why would make two couple so annoying they you wish they do get killed.The last scenes was bloody Joke, it's actually funny!3 out of 10
I remember watching this as a child back in the day when the BBC used show a series of movies from Australia and New Zealand late at night and Long Weekend left an indelible impression on me. Then watching again on DVD a couple of decades later i found that the movie had lost none of its impact.Shot at the time of the Australian "New Wave" film making era (regarded by many as a golden age of Australian cinema) Long Weekend also tapped into a short lived sequence of movies with an ecological message. In the 1970 's film makers explored the concept of man no longer being top of the food chain whether through intelligent ants, fire starting primordial bugs or nature fighting back against mankind's abuse. At the start of the Long Weekend a news channel playing on a background television reports of birds attacking people and this is before the bickering couple have even set of for their destiny with disaster. The couple played brilliantly by John Hargreaves and Briony Behets are a fairly dislikeable pair. A positive assessment of their characters is not possible as the viewer picks over the remains of their marriage and their subsequent actions. In a last ditch attempt to save their marriage they take themselves off to the sticks for the Long Weekend.Where this movie excels is in its eerie, creepy atmosphere which is assisted by the remote swamp/coastal off the beaten track location and the influence of John Boormans Deliverance on proceedings. The false hope aroused when the abandoned vehicle is spotted on the beach and then the locating of the tent housing only a dog amplifies their isolation and the terminal level of desperation and paranoia consuming the couple. Not only is their marriage on the rocks but our urban couple are clearly out of their depth in their location. A sequence of premeditated and accidental abuse of their surroundings by the couple is paid back in spades by mother nature at times in a quasi supernatural style which causes events to spiral completely out of the couples control. There is no happy ending. A much inferior remake of this movie was made starring John Caviezel in an almost shot for shot Gus Van Sant's Psycho style which does prompt the question why.
One of the first eco-horrors I think, but it joins the others in being pretty lame. At least it wasn't an overly ambitious grand-scheme effort (ahem, The Happening), being just a little story about an urban couple who go camping and do all sorts of inconsiderate sh*t to Mother Nature, who decides to take offence and sends her minions to sort them out.There are some interesting scenes in the movie - a mysterious presence in the sea, a vicious possum, a reappearing dugong carcass - but a lot of the time it just shows an unpleasant couple who're out camping. The suspense and thrills just weren't there for me. I don't understand why so many people raved about it on IMDb. Must be environmentalists, all.