Review of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Antonius B — 12 Jul 2018

Director Peter Weir creates a dreamy feeling to this mystery of the disappearance of three schoolgirls and a teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria in 1900, and that's probably the key to really enjoying this film, soaking up its atmosphere.

I liked the ambiguity of it all, as well as the little Victorian age touches, communing with nature and reading poetry. However, as a whole, it seemed a bit like a made-for-TV production, amateurish in places, and melodramatic in others.

The whole point, of course, is that horror is more intense when it is unseen and unknown, and, like others, I see the film as a forerunner to 'The Blair Witch Project'. It was harder to appreciate moments when character actions seemed illogical or the film left loose ends dangling.

It's telling to me that the original book explained the events in a very silly way (google it), but author Joan Lindsay's editor had that chapter removed. The film is entertaining, but it didn't live up to its acclaim for me.