Wake in Fright (1971)

Director: Ted Kotcheff

Starring: Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence

More info: IMDB

Tagline: Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? Have some dust and sweat, mate? There's nothing else out here.

Plot: Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But his one night stretches to five and he plunges headlong toward his own destruction. When the alcohol-induced mist lifts, the educated John Grant is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against the wall and looking at a rifle with one bullet left...

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? At some point, sure.

#3 on my on-going quest to watch every film from the amazing documentary, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF OZPLOITATION! (2008)



So I finish THE TWO FACES OF DR. JECKYLL (1960) last night around 11:15 and I'm just awake to fall asleep watching another movie when I come across this one in plain view of my to-watch stack. All I knew is that it was featured in the great Ozploitation documentary sited above. Done. I suppose it was the title that suggested to me this would be a horror film but it is not. Hell, the trailer makes it look like an action movie. You could make a case that it has horror elements but they're thinly veiled and you'd have to broaden your definition of horror for that to happen.

Hey, look, kids! It's John Meillon! You know, the guy that played 'CROCODILE' DUNDEE's buddy, Walter Reilly! Neat! Exclamation points rock!

Fantastic performances, especially by Bond as the "I want to be anywhere but here" Outback teacher, John Grant. Pleasance plays 'dastardly' all too well. Every character has flaws, even Grant, and for some they aren't pretty.


A few things I learned watching this movie: Everyone in the Outback drinks heavily, gambles heavily, loves to kill kangaroos, loves to drink as soon as they wake up from drinking and they're all aggressively cordial. West End beer must be either really fucking good or really fucking cheap 'cause that's just about what everyone drinks.


WiF is brutally stark film that doesn't paint a pretty picture for Australia, unlike modern horror films. It's a beautiful country but you'd never know it from this movie. The opening shot starts on Grant's schoolhouse and slowly pans a 360 showing you nothing but the same desert in every direction. You quickly understand how Grant feels and how primitive everyone behaves because there's simply nothing to do in town but drink, gamble, and shoot some 'roos.


I'm certainly glad I watched it although had I known how dark and deep it was, I would have set it aside for a different time because what you really want to watch on a late Friday night is a horror movie or the action film the trailer suggests. No regrets, though. Nope, not a one.