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Aussie Genre/Exploitation films

Started by Sebastian Cobb, April 12, 2021, 09:00:34 PM

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Sebastian Cobb

After really enjoying the Cannon documentary, last night I watched Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! which was even more entertaining, it had Barry Humphries in it and everything!

I wasn't really aware there was a big scene over there, sure I've seen Mad Max and Wake in Fright, but I didn't realise there were other ridiculous and sleazy car films, and ridiculous and sleazy slasher films to get excited about.

Does anyone have any good pointers? I made a note of most of the films mentioned in the documentary, but the ones I marked down to check out were:
The Barry McKenzie Story (I think this sort of pre-dated the genre stuff properly, and is probably grossly offensive by modern standards, but in with both feet and all that)
Australia After Dark
Nights of Fear
Lady Stay Dead
Patrick
Long Weekend
Snapshot
The Day After Halloween
The Survivor
Roadgames
Razor Back
The Man from Hong Kong
Chain Reaction
Turkey Shoot
Fair Game
Dead End Drive In

Chedney Honks

I got the Roadgames LE recently from Indicator, really looking forward to it but gonna watch with my wife so the variables need to align. Interested in the thread, defo.


Sebastian Cobb

It was described as "rear window with a truck", which was enough to sell it to me!

Dusty Substance

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on April 12, 2021, 09:00:34 PM
After really enjoying the Cannon documentary, last night I watched Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! which was even more entertaining, it had Barry Humphries in it and everything!

One of the best documentaries about films I've ever seen. The enthusiasm with which they speak about the unique way Ozploitation films are made moved me to tears of joy.

Peter Weir and George Miller films aside, I think my all time favourite Australian film is the utterly unique Bad Boy Bubby. Kind of like the antidote to Forrest Gump, it deals with similar themes bit with some added Oldboy type imprisonment thrown in. Essential viewing.

Sebastian Cobb

Ah yeah, that has been recommended to me before but it had somehow fell off my mental list.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Dusty Substance on April 12, 2021, 09:56:23 PM...Peter Weir and George Miller films aside, I think my all time favourite Australian film is the utterly unique Bad Boy Bubby. Kind of like the antidote to Forrest Gump, it deals with similar themes bit with some added Oldboy type imprisonment thrown in. Essential viewing.

Yeah, it's an extraordinary film. IIRC, I was rather wary of it because of it being a 'controversial' film but thought it was simply outstanding.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on April 12, 2021, 09:00:34 PM...The Barry McKenzie Story (I think this sort of pre-dated the genre stuff properly, and is probably grossly offensive by modern standards, but in with both feet and all that)...

I'm very fond of both MacKenzie films - think it's fair to say that they were both seen as offensive at the time, but would say there is often a point to it and like the comic strip, has an element of social satire.

Good list - also would recommend Mad Dog Morgan.

Not sure it strictly belongs here, but found The Cars That Ate Paris to be brilliant.

Sebastian Cobb

That's the hopper one isn't it? I meant to jot that one too but seem to have missed it so thanks for the reminder!

chveik

Celia (1989)

QuoteSet in mid 1950s Australia, with the fear of communism in the air and the country's farmlands overrun by a plague of rabbits, the film depicts a long hot summer seen through the eyes and over-active imagination of nine year old Celia. Shaken by the death of her beloved Grandmother, Celia finds herself adrift between the cruel games and rituals of childhood and the incomprehensible world of grown-ups. With monstrous creatures stalking her dreams by night, those imagined terrors blur by day with the banal brutality of the adult world and lead to tragic and shocking consequences

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on April 12, 2021, 10:50:37 PM
That's the hopper one isn't it? I meant to jot that one too but seem to have missed it so thanks for the reminder!


Yup, sorry - meant to mention that... and anytime!

Dex Sawash

There's one I've seen where an American Rob Lowe lookalike hires a van to tour Australia. He picks up a girl and she
Spoiler alert
kidnaps him to where she lives with a large extended family. He is kept in a pig sty. The patriarch dances on a metal bar in electrified shoes, throwing sparks, as nightly entertainment. They collect kangaoo roadkill and make dogfood from it.
[close]

What were that called?

zomgmouse

Most of the ones I would recommend have already been mentioned but thought I'd name a few more:

Stone. Cop goes undercover in a bikie gang. Quite naturalistic and a bit of a unique one, the director never made any other films. Great score/soundtrack.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em. Short but sweet post-apocalyptic comedy set at an underground party. Kicks off.

Fortress. A schoolteacher and her young class are kidnapped and try to escape. Not hugely extraordinary from memory but a lot of fun.

Dark Age. Killer croc on the loose. Supposedly one of Tarantino's faves (when they screened this in Melbourne they borrowed the print from his private collection).

The Plumber. Not sure if it's exactly exploitation but it's a clever twist on the home invasion genre by Peter Weir.

Body Melt. Again maybe on the periphery of the genre by virtue of its year of release but this is a fantastic sci-fi horror comedy. Very low-budget splattery silliness.

Ferris

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

It's got Elrond in it.

Dex Sawash


chveik

i wouldn't wind a middle level sex scene action

13 schoolyards

Quote from: Dex Sawash on April 13, 2021, 02:26:07 AM
I got it



I saw that at a media preview screening when it was first released and fairly early on into the film Daryl Somers (shit Australian TV host, refuses to fuck off even though his only show was cancelled twenty years ago) stood up, turned to face the audience, said "I don't know how you put up with this shit", and stormed out.

zomgmouse

Some recent(ish) Australian horrors: The Loved Ones, Killing Ground and Hounds of Love. Really intense and creepy.

phantom_power

Dead-End Drive-In is good silly fun that makes good use of its budget

Turkey Shoot is dogshit

One of my favourite Aussie films is Chopper, though not sure it is relevant for this thread.

Dusty Substance

Quote from: zomgmouse on April 13, 2021, 02:08:12 AM

Body Melt. Again maybe on the periphery of the genre by virtue of its year of release but this is a fantastic sci-fi horror comedy. Very low-budget splattery silliness.

Worth watching just to see Harold Bishop in a splatter flick.


Gulftastic

Quote from: Ignatius_S on April 12, 2021, 10:45:07 PM
Not sure it strictly belongs here, but found The Cars That Ate Paris to be brilliant.

Before Channel 4 started and they had ads on the channel telling you what was coming up, clips of that film was one of things that was talked of excitedly in the playground. We had no clue what it was about, we just loved the spiky beetle.

studpuppet

How the fuck did this get so far down with no one mentioning The Castle?

Catalogue Trousers

Or Mr Reliable, come to that? Hell, The Dish even.

QuoteWhat were that called?

Dex, it's been a while since I last saw it, but the Rob Lowe lookalike and the kangaroo/dog meat operation make it pretty likely that you're thinking of Razorback.

George White

#23
Quote from: Ignatius_S on April 12, 2021, 10:45:07 PM
I'm very fond of both MacKenzie films - think it's fair to say that they were both seen as offensive at the time, but would say there is often a point to it and like the comic strip, has an element of social satire.

I am a fan of the Bazza pics, esp. Holds his Own, which is extraordinary.
Yes, he is a racist, sexist, homophobic creature, but he's shwn constantly to be wrong. (All of the ethnic characters he meets are educated and well-spoken, there's a posh black photographer played by  Merdelle Jordine, who AFAIK was a posh black photographer when not acting in the likes of Crossroads)
Also, they have insane casts.
Adventures has Dennis Price as a schoolboy fetish ex-RAF ace, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook (who co-created the character of Bazza for Private Eye), Willie Rushton, Julie Covington, Joan Bakewell as herself and lot of other familiar aces, but
Holds his Own has Barry Humphries and Barry "Neighbours theme" Crocker, plus Donald Pleasence as a vampire count who kidnaps Edna Everage in the belief she's the Queen, 40s radio star Dick Bentley as  Barry's Paris-based Aussie expat mentor Col the Frog, Ed "dad in Skippy/Skipinder" Devereaux, Roy Kinnear as the Bishop of Paris, Frank Windsor and Deryck Guyler as cops, Arthur English smuggling illegal immigrants, Play School host/Russell Crowe's ex-father in law Don Spencer hosting a game show-based immigration   committee challenging John Le Mesurier's sexuality, that's right, John Le Mesurier, Tommy Trinder as Barry's convict ancestor, Clive James as Bazza's pal who has Foster's instead of blood, Robert "Keep it in the Family" Gillespie as a hunchback, Guy Maddin's muse Louis Negin as a faintly Colin Jeavons-ish effete Transylvanian spy, pre-Rocky Horror Little Nell Campbell, former Mrs. Biggins Beatrice Aston as the wife o Bazza's identical twin Kev the Rev, Hitchcock child actor Desmond Tester, Fiona Richmond, and the actual then-but-soon-to-be-dismissed Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam and his wife Lady Margaret

George White

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on April 13, 2021, 11:09:48 PM
Or Mr Reliable, come to that? Hell, The Dish even.

Dex, it's been a while since I last saw it, but the Rob Lowe lookalike and the kangaroo/dog meat operation make it pretty likely that you're thinking of Razorback.
No, the film is def Welcome to Woop Woop, as mentioned above.
The image of Big Rod dancing with sparklers on his feet does not leave the mind easily.

zomgmouse

Quote from: studpuppet on April 13, 2021, 10:31:28 PM
How the fuck did this get so far down with no one mentioning The Castle?

To be fair this thread is specifically about genre/exploitation films rather than Australian films info general.

samadriel

A recent genre film I mistakenly mentioned in the non-new films thread is High Ground, a western about the aftermath of an Aboriginal massacre. Not gory, but certainly genre, with gunfights and a spearing or two. I recommend it, although I don't know how you'd get a hold of it in the UK.

famethrowa

Quote from: George White on April 13, 2021, 11:11:29 PM
I am a fan of the Bazza pics, esp. Holds his Own, which is extraordinary.


I had to have a peek at that, luckily it's right here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRv1E5OocjA

Mainly to see what a young(er) Clive James looks like, but nope, he was going bald even then.

Sebastian Cobb

At least one of them is on Prime in HD as well.

13 schoolyards

Quote from: samadriel on April 14, 2021, 06:33:54 AM
A recent genre film I mistakenly mentioned in the non-new films thread is High Ground, a western about the aftermath of an Aboriginal massacre. Not gory, but certainly genre, with gunfights and a spearing or two. I recommend it, although I don't know how you'd get a hold of it in the UK.

That's a great film (I believe it's "available" online). The Mystery Road movies (especially the second one) are also decent (modern day) outback westerns, though the later TV series drags things out a bit.

Upgrade is a solid Aussie SF thriller - they don't specifically mention which futuristic city it's set in and the main cast are all either Americans or bunging on a US accent, but the use of Melbourne's "futuristic" (not futuristic at all) Bolte Bridge as the back drop was a good laugh for the locals.