Tockinit not horrible nor great

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

ulyssesgammahose Absolutely perfect mix of low-key realism and expressionistic horror. I'd liken it to Straw Dogs, The Birds and Rosemary's Baby. It's more a psychological thriller than a straight-up animals attacking human film, but the savagery of the natural world is never far away.No special effects, very little music, just a young couple whose marriage unravels on an isolated beach, and at the same time nasty events happen which suggests nature isn't happy with them....it's all done in a believable way so the animal attacks may just be co-incidence. Very atmospheric, perfectly paced and great building of tension - reaching a real sense of dread in the last half hour.

Alenbalz Got sucked in by the IMDb rating for what turned out to be a long bit of disjoint rubbish, and stupid scene after stupid scene with Lousy acting, even for it's time, albeit for an interesting storyline/plot. And typical of many Australian movies of the period, trying to impress the overseas audience, with a couple of gratuitous scenes of all of the famous Australian wildlife, kangaroos, koalas, blue tongue lizard, wedge-tail eagle, cockatoos and the elusive Tasmanian Devil: and for those who don't know their Australian natural history very well, it doesn't really matter what the elusive Tasmanian Devil (which is called that because it is ONLY found in Tasmania), is doing on a mainland Australian beach. The man is an environmental vandal and the woman a typical frustrated/nagging suburban cliché, both are out of their comfort zones in the wild (nature). Man with a gun, as an answer to whatever he doesn't understand, whose answer is to shoot willy nilly in the direction of any nightly sound: and one of the stupid scenes is- down comes a woman's shoe when he shoots in the night sky. Both the man and woman manage to drive round in circles, woman at night, and man during the day. and don't even wonder, What's the point of having a 4wheel drive, if after you get bogged, you (man) simply abandon the car and run around like a chook without a head. This is not a movie of nature reaking revenge on two city slickers, but more a movie of two city slickers way out of their element.

cmoyton 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.

rstef1 From reading the other reviews I am apparently in the minority here. I truly enjoy eerie, deliberately paced Aussie films like Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave, but I need to care about or at least empathize with the main characters. These 2 protagonists just left me cold. I couldn't believe for one second that they would go off to the wilds on a long weekend of roughing it, and it was no fun watching them bicker and sulk for 90 minutes. Even when things are going downhill and any sensible person would get the hell out of there, the guy behaves like a total tool and stays. The big revelation at the hour mark seemed like a ridiculous plot device thrown in to keep the viewer interested, rather than a real life situation, and did nothing to explain why the wife would have ever agreed to the weekend trip to the outback beach.I will give both actors credit as they obviously tried hard with their characters, but the script gives them nothing to work with. To call this a classic as some here have done is extremely generous. I'd suggest watching a lot more films before bestowing that honor on this flick. For a more fun "nature turns the tables on man" flick, watch Frogs from 1972; it's silly but enjoyable. For a truly creepy lost in the woods movie, stick with Blair Witch Project.