1971 Directed by Ted Kotcheff
Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction.
Gary Bond Donald Pleasence Chips Rafferty Sylvia Kay Jack Thompson Peter Whittle Al Thomas John Meillon John Armstrong Slim DeGrey Maggie Dence Norm Erskine Owen Moase John Dalleen Buster Fiddess Tex Foote Colin Hughes Jacko Jackson Nancy Knudsen Dawn Lake Harry Lawrence Robert McDarra Carlo Manchini Liam Reynolds Nelson
Outback, 假期惊魂, 웨이크 인 프라이트, Да се събудиш в страх, Ferien in der Hölle, Despertar en el infierno, Réveil dans la terreur, 荒野の千鳥足, Na krańcu świata, Pelos Caminhos do Inferno, Опасное пробуждение, Korkuyla Uyan, 内陆惊魂
Intense violence and sexual transgression Politics and human rights Horror, the undead and monster classics Cannibalism and extreme gory horror Racism and the powerful fight for justice Brutal revenge and graphic violence Challenging or sexual themes & twists Student coming-of-age challenges Show All…
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the only horror film brave enough to ask the chilling question: "what if you had to hang out with Australians."
The most nihilistic film of all time. Worse than hell; there is nothing. You can drink, you can kill and you can try to escape but you'll still just end up in a void of your own human awfulness.
Recommended to me on my Make me watch your favourite list.
Sweltering and oppressive, Wake in Fright is a man's disconcerting descent into his own personal hell.
Kotcheff's film first slowly peels only to end up clawing at its protagonist's humanity, exposing an animalistic nerve that is both confronting and harrowing. Acted superbly across the board and shot with a colour palette that only adds to the scorching desert heat, Wake in Fright captures life in the Australian outback in, what I can only assume, a painfully realistic way.
This film is astonishing. It takes the simplest of premises, a man stuck in a place trying to get away, and turns it into an inevitable, slow, spiralling plunge into the…
They didn’t need to murder that many kangaroos. Should have just cgi’d the kangaroo murders
"Come on, John, have a drink."
"Oh no, that's alright, I really shouldn't."
"Nonsense, John, come have a pint with us."
"I'm alright, thanks though."
"John."
"Yeah?"
"Come have a pint."
"I think I'll just have some water instead."
"Have a fucking pint with us, John."
"..."
"COME HAVE A FUCKING PINT, YA BASTARD!"
*John's head explodes*
A genuine nightmare captured on film. Shockingly dismal and almost stunningly beautiful in its ugliness. The descent of a man straight into his own personal hell. Anyone who has ever spiraled out in their lives knows what this is like and since I’m one of those people, I related all too heavily to a man turning into something he never thought he could be.
Every frame is dripping with sweat and grime and it’s so in your face that you can almost smell it and it’s not pleasant in the least, but it is captivating in an inexplicable way. And hey it’s actually a Christmas movie since it takes place over the holidays!
Gary Bond and Donald Pleasance deliver knockout…
“Wake in Fright” is a film that doesn’t so much fray nerves, as it does flay the skin clear off; roasting the remnants of humanity in the unforgiving outback heat.
Director Ted Kotcheff’s Australian New Wave thriller was one of only two films to ever screen twice at Cannes; encoring when its restored 2009 release arrived with an introduction by Martin Scorsese.
The work was simply too disturbing the first time around.
“Fright” depicts the physical, moral and spiritual degradation of John Grant, an English schoolteacher who spends a short stopover in a back country Australian township.
Distinguishing “Fright” from similar horror flick kin, which would make the Grant’s journey one of hillbilly victimhood, is that the protagonist is as…
Lise and Jonnie's What A Wonderful World 2015
All my life I’ve held the misbelief that Canadians were champion drinkers. Not even close. Earlier this year seeing the Russian drama Leviathan shattered my belief, but I comforted myself saying ‘that was vodka’. When it comes to beer, we’re still tops. Apparently not. Those outback Aussies would clean our clocks. ‘Here, drink that up so I can buy you another!’
Wake in Fright is a lucid waking nightmare. It claws at you and pulls you down, deeper and deeper. Resist as you might, its simple nature and utterly base morality and behavior may appear beneath you, causing you to underestimate its charm and power, and this is exactly where the nightmare…
Schoolteacher John Grant drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and drinks and then gets in a fist fight with a kangaroo.
Unforgivable. Nothing justifies the mass murder of kangaroos that forms the centerpiece of Wake in Fright. However. Nothing is a more gruesome affirmation of man's evil than this extended and drawn out massacre that unfolds in Wake in Fright. It is relentless and symbolic of the darkest descent a man can embark on. The evil, hedonistic energy of the hunt is exhilarating, similar to the joy of throwing up midway through an alcohol binge. This is the cinema of corruption, a lesson in how to lose your soul. It's the mad, degrading spiral we can all fall into. It's a film to make you sick, and relish the sweet relief of warm vomit.
Wake in Fright follows a respectable man,…
Wake in Fright is a film that I have practically known about on Letterboxd's site during this year since others like Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB don't talk about it at all, almost as if it didn't exist. I confess that at first, I was not so willing or motivated to write about it, but in the end, I was in the mood, especially because this film has a fatalistic intention that deserves it.
In it, John Grant, an excellent professor who arrives in a mining town located in an inhospitable desert, decides to spend the night there before catching a plane to Sydney. But five nights pass and Grant seems to be slowly approaching self-destruction. When the effects of alcohol…
Have a drink mate: how to recognize aggressive hospitalitWILL YOU HAVE A DRINK, MATE?
