Wake in Fright (1971)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Wake in Fright (1971) – T. Kotcheff

AKA Outback; This is one of those “horror” movies where a naïve, possibly too cocky, protagonist gets in over his head.  In this case, John Grant (played rather stiffly by Gary Bond) gets stuck in the Australian country town of Bundanyabba (called “The Yabba” for short) where everyone’s yer mate and happy to buy you a pot or a schooner. In fact, after Chips Rafferty introduces him to the local haunts, Grant finds himself on a non-stop treadmill of booze, gambling, proffered sex, and then drunken kangaroo hunting (with gruesome real footage).  As a viewer, you are as off-guard as Grant, not knowing whether these raucous Aussie blokes are up to no good or not.  Donald Pleasance adds to the sense of unease as a former outsider who has now given up everything for the delirium that pervades the Yabba.  Can Grant actually escape alive before he too succumbs to the wasted life?  The dusty outback looks great and there’s an Aussie authenticity here that just might scare you off from travelling outside the major metropolises.