For a long time, Wake in Fright (aka Outbreak) was regarded as one of the ‘great lost Australian films’. Although critically celebrated across the board, its infamously unsympathetic presentation of Australia, unflinching hunting scenes and poor box office saw it lost to history. Back in 2009, Ted Kotcheff’s film was restored bringing it back from obscurity to the plaudits of revered filmmakers and critics alike. Now in 2014, Eureka is giving it a limited theatrical re-release before unleashing it onto the home video market on their Masters of Cinema label.
As part of John Grant’s (Gary Bond) contract as a bonded-teacher, he has to teach wherever he is posted until he has repaid his $1,000 fees. Through that, he has been posted in the remote township of Tiboonda. With Christmas approaching, Grant leaves Tiboonda, staying overnight at Bundanyabba (The Yabba) before flying to Sydney to spend the holiday with his girlfriend. Greeted in the Yabba by Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty), he is embraced by the hospitality of the town and later their local gambling scene. After a spell of good luck, the young teacher believes he can pay off his debt, escaping his ‘bondage’. An optimism that quickly sees him broke and at rock bottom.
Beer is everything in the Yabba, and Wake in Fright’s Australia. When Grant meets Jock, the local law enforcer stares at his unfinished pint of beer as if to say, “go on, drink up mate”. Even when actively drinking, he still forcefully stares at his untouched pint. There’s nothing else to drink, no other options, just this thick, acrid beer they are all downing – as frankly pointed out by Donald Pleasance’s Doc: “Water is used to wash, not drink”. This all accumulates into a brand of forceful hospitality that decrees the Yabba’s pace as absolute. While exaggerated into a hyper-masculine version of 21st-century alcoholism, the city is just the surface of this holiday. Wake in Fright turns social pressure into a horror vehicle.
This is a film that horrifies through the brutalisation of something as socially accepted as drinking beer with friends… it takes an incredibly talented filmmaker to make something so ordinary into an object of fear.
In a place that has no purpose for money is Doc’s dilapidated shack, it’s here where the film earned its right to be called the “the most terrifying film about Australia in existence” (Nick Cave). “Ozploitation” is notorious for assimilating frighteningly authentic hunting scenes. Wake in Fright is one of the harsher, chasing down Kangaroo in their car, killing and shooting any they find is nothing shy of horrifying. The way the Kangaroo twitches from its mortal coil is the brand of traumatic imagery that burrows its way deep into your mind. Just describing this one scene, you will know whether or not Wake in Fright is one for you. Despite liking this movie, very much, I am unlikely to watch it again – the animal cruelty was just too much.
More specific to Kotcheff’s successes is the editing and score. As the film opens and Grant is teaching a class that spans several age groups, where the music by John Scott is deceptively jaunty. This effectively illustrates his blissful ignorance. After one binge too many, Grant wakes to find Doc standing over him, where the composition has taken a turn for the worse. In place of the carefree music is discordant and arrhythmic atmospherics. Music that evokes the timelessness of the vast empty landscapes of the Yabba, this is a score that circles Grant, Doc, Dick & Joe in a world apathetic to time or purpose; all that matters is consumption. Since the release of Wake in Fright, its marriage of sound & image has since become the go-to ideal in psychological horror. This is no mere proto-example either, this one-two punch is every bit as powerful as it ever was.
Whether Kotcheff’s take on Kenneth Cook’s book (of the same name) views Australia with an unfavourable insight or vivid exaggerations, the result is still the same. With a career-defining performance from Donald Pleasance, Wake in Fright is all the validation ‘Ozploitation’ ever needed. This film horrifies through brutalising something as socially accepted as drinking beer with friends. Regardless of its reputation, it takes an incredibly talented filmmaker to make something so ordinary into an object of genuine fear. All its successes aside, animal cruelty is a big hurdle for any movie to clear and for many, it’ll be a barrier too high.
WAKE IN FRIGHT IS OUT ON MASTERS OF CINEMA BLU-RAY
