begob A tense couple take a break in the wilderness after their relationship is exposed, and find nature red in tooth and claw - but whose nature?Couple of big themes going on here - mother and child + estrangement from nature, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. The story is well paced, and all the creatures are nasty and exotic, but the central relationship in what is essentially a two-hander just didn't interest me.The actors are fine, but the dialogue has no charm and it's hard to imagine the characters ever having enjoyed each other's company. So basically we have to spend 100 minutes with a pair of unlikable people - especially the husband, who presents immediately as a dickhead - without a hint of humour.All the '70s influences, from twangly semi-tone music to pollution outrage. The dugong was creepy, until it heaved itself all the way in - a moment of bathos. And the wind-screen smash was an eye-roller as well.Overall, needed a better script but directed and performed fairly well.

jadavix A bickering couple, enduring a rough patch in their relationship, make an ill advised decision to go camping on the beach over a long weekend. The woman doesn't like camping; she'd rather see her husband at society parties trying to climb the social ladder. The husband is tired of society; his wife cheated on him with a neighbour and had to abort his child. He just wants to get away from it all with his surfboard and his dog, Cricket.Something is wrong from the outset when the locals haven't even heard of Mernda Beach. The determined man finds it anyway, to his wife's chagrin, and after fighting some more he heads off to surf. There is a shadow under the water: is it a shark? The wife calls her husband back to the shore, frantically, but more hostile animals await: a possum, an eagle, a dog. Nature seems to be pitting itself against them. Or is it pitting the couple against each other?"Long Weekend" is a horror classic, the best Australian horror movie ever made. Calling it a story of nature turned hostile is doing it a disservice. This is a deeply chilling psychological horror movie with the animals standing for more than just physical threats. What is the dugong, for instance? Why does it appear to get closer to the campers when they assume it to be dead? And why does nature do the most damage, not with outright attacks on people, but when tricking people into attacking one another?There are any number of things that nature could be standing in for in "Long Weekend". Does it represent the simmering hostilities between people that cannot be ignored, that come closer when you turn your back? Or is it truly just an evil nature movie, but with handling so disturbing your mind won't stop there when calculating the threat?Either way, "Long Weekend" is an unforgettable viewing experience, and a true classic.

ladymidath 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.

DC1977 I saw this film on the strength of how Tarantino raved about it as some kind of unknown classic on the Not Quite Hollywood documentary.The 92 minutes it took to watch Long Weekend seemed like 3 weeks.The film is well made but as it is such a thin, boring story with poor dialogue, bad acting and two main characters who are so unlikable that it was impossible to care about them, this was destined to be a real drag.I usually write longer reviews than this but I'm not prepared to give up any more time on this film.Avoid it.