Long Weekend

As the cycle of cheesy mid-’70s animals-gone-amok horror films petered out to be replaced with Halloween knock-offs, in 1979 the Aussies jumped into the game with this low-budget but highly effective bit of eco-payback. Proving that you don’t need a hockey mask and a tool shed or invading tentacled beasties with an eye for our wimmin-folk to create an effective horror film, this supernatural-free entry details the misadventures of a suburban couple on the camping trip from hell. Disdainful of nature and thoroughly despicable in same, soon the couple come to find that they are seriously out of their element. Which would be an understatement. Relatively gore-free but decidedly disquieting, Long Weekend uses its spare production values and settings to excellent effect. With a minimalist soundtrack that for the most part eschews traditional musical stings to jolt the audience, instead the film uses ambient sound to create the building dread and unease felt by the couple as they realize too late that it is a nigh-on-bad idea to bugger with Mother Nature.