Peter Weir's THE LAST WAVE

[shootitinthehead]

Just got this today. I'd seen it when I was young, and while I really liked it the film still went over my head a bit then.

I just watched the interview with Mr. Weir and the trailer. Tommorow when I wont fall asleep I am going to settle into this one and devote all my attention to it.

Anybody into this film?

[Straxboy - An Anthony Hickox Film]

Is that the really surreal couple-on-the-verge-of-divorce-go-to-the-country picture and nature becomes the stuff of waking nightmares ?

I recall being freaked out by it as a kid. Depressed me like nothing else. This and Walkabout really made me question whether Australia was all that hospitable a place.

[Boys #22: elmie]

Haven't seen THE LAST WAVE , but Weir's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a film I love, one that sits perfectly on the horror / not quite horror shelf with the likes of THE WICKER MAN and FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION ...

I'll have to track down TLW ...

[Living Dead Milkman]

Oh, yeah. Funny this movie should be brought up in this forum at roughly the same time as The Day After. Two more different apocalyptic "horror" movies you'd be hard-pressed to find.

It's been years since I saw TLW, but it was a favorite of mine, too. Very eerie, haunting, enigmatic, borderline-surreal piece of work--which could also be said, of course, of Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, arguably his masterpiece. This is certainly one of Weir's most unsettling films.

[Disciple]

The Last Wave is AMAZING. It's hard for me to talk about it without giving too much away, but if you're a fan of endings...

Definitely my favorite Weir film, with Hanging Rock and Fearless following close behind.

[shootitinthehead]

QUOTE "Is that the really surreal couple-on-the-verge-of-divorce-go-to-the-country picture and nature becomes the stuff of waking nightmares ?"

No, what movie is that?
THE LAST WAVE is about aborigine prophecies. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is about a class field trip that went missing, just fell off the face of the earth never to be seen again.

Yes THE LAST WAVE packs one hell of an ending *Siith has ablank stare, as a breeze lightly blows hair in face, he is utterly blown away*

[Captain Blake 31]

"The Last Wave" is great. Anyone who appreciates that special 70's "bleak and inexorable fate" vibe of "Don't Look Now" should search it out.

"Is that the really surreal couple-on-the-verge-of-divorce-go-to-the-country picture and nature becomes the stuff of waking nightmares ?"

That's "Long Weekend" (1978), another fantastic Australian oddity. Absolutely bizarre, it's probably the scariest "nature's revenge" movie ever made. Better than "Phase IV"...better than "Kingdom of the Spiders", even. Maybe not better than "The Birds", but definitely more frightening.

Along with the usual nasty spiders, snakes and other creepy-crawlies, this one's got a bit of a supernatural edge; In true "Blair Witch" fashion, the couple can't find their way out of the woods, driving down a road that keeps leading them back to where they started from.

So the spiders can get 'em...

Been a while since I've seen it, but I believe the director actually gets some creepy mileage out of a dead sea-cow.

[Straxboy - An Anthony Hickox Film]

Blake, you're a star. Thanks for reassuring me I'm not delusional.

I'll track down The Last Wave shoot, always on the look out for the offbeat and unusual.