Wake in Fright

I have always been an avid supporter for film restoration ever since it had begun.

Personally I enjoy cleaning film I find it relaxing. I am also an avid lover of finding “Loft Films”

One thing that makes me happy about my new home here in Austin, TX is that I am among other film enthusiasts. With the film festivals here like Fantastic Fest I get to see movies that I had never even heard of and then I see that they are there and that they are receiving a limited release for courtesy of the Alamo Drafthouse.

One of the films that I am referring to is Wake in Fright. I saw this film advertised in the program and I decided to check it out.

The film’s director Ted Kocheff who was in attendance at the screen told an interesting story to the audience in the theater.

It turns out that despite the acclaim of the film it was not well received by moviegoers and as a result disappeared into obscurity and was lost for decades. It was not until someone actually searched for the movie that the negatives were found in a Warehouse in various stages of disrepair that it was realized what it was, and the negatives and audio marked for incineration.

Thanks to this person the film was saved and has now “returned form the dead”.

Now I will be completely honest this film got past me. I had actually never heard of it until now but I am very happy that I did.

Wake in Fright isn’t a horror movie like the title suggests it is the tale of an Australian school teacher going on holiday trying to get to Sydney and stops in a town called “The Yabba” and “The Hospitality” that they show him.

After getting drunk he goes gambling and loses all of his money for his trip and is trapped in the town.

Now when I say “The Hospitality” I am not referring to how badly he is treated in reality the people in the town are polite and want him to have drinks with them and such. That is where he has problems. HE gets drunk allot and when he gets drunk that ends up being where he gets in trouble.

There is a brutal Kangaroo hunt scene in the film.

 

I found out in the post screening QnA that at the time that the movie was being made Kangaroos were hunted and brutally killed during this time to make American Dog Food and the filmmakers were asked to keep the hunting footage in its entirety to show what really happens there being that the kangaroos were quickly becoming endangered. As a result Kangaroos are no longer killed for dog food.

 

It is common knowledge that I am a fan of Donald Pleasence I want to say that I had been a fan of his ever since Halloween in the immortal role of Dr. Sam Loomis the nemesis of Michael Myers that I wanted to see everything that he had played from one of three portrayals of 007’s arch nemesis Blofeld, to the henchman Lucas Deranian in Escape to Witch Mountain, and finally the President of the United States in Escape from New York. I have never seen Pleasence in a role like this as he usually plays clean cut and refined characters. In the role of Doc pleasance is anything but refined. As a matter of fact Pleasence is quite the opposite in this film, in a way that you have to see to believe.

 

0 Dead Bodies

8 Dead Kangaroo

0 Breasts

5 Beasts

Gratuitous Drunken Donald Pleasence

Impulsive Gambling

3 ½ Stars

Check it out