ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Colt Ganloso The reviews on this site for "Long Weekend" are positively hyperbolic: "the epitome of Australian horror" opines one gushing reviewer; who goes on to proclaim it as the "best horror film to come from down under" "lost Aussie masterpiece!!!" asserts another, who must really mean it, as they have punctuated this statement with three exclamation points! I'm sorry to say that I found this film to be fatuous, fatuous with at least 5 exclamation points. The plot is basically thus: Aussie bloke takes his frigid wife on a mini-break out of town for the weekend. His wife is the biggest whinger OF ALL TIME a bold move then, that the writer should choose to play against type and make her...English. Yes, she's whinging AND she's a pom - you learn something new every day.So this unlikable couple, who I cared not a jot for, reach their deserted getaway; en route they run over a roo on the highway, which subsequently turns out to be a rather bad move because this act (and some other crimes against nature) has made nature....very angry! an eagle attacks the Aussie bloke, then a possum bites his finger, something moans in the distance (creepy, apparently) but really, I didn't care, as after about 40 minutes of this film I had reached the critical mass point; a point where I know that the chances of the the film getting any better, are virtually nil, as the stall has been set, the cards have been dealt and you realise you are watching a stinker.

cmoyton I remember watching this as a child back in the day when the BBC used show a series of movies from Australia and New Zealand late at night and Long Weekend left an indelible impression on me. Then watching again on DVD a couple of decades later i found that the movie had lost none of its impact.Shot at the time of the Australian "New Wave" film making era (regarded by many as a golden age of Australian cinema) Long Weekend also tapped into a short lived sequence of movies with an ecological message. In the 1970 's film makers explored the concept of man no longer being top of the food chain whether through intelligent ants, fire starting primordial bugs or nature fighting back against mankind's abuse. At the start of the Long Weekend a news channel playing on a background television reports of birds attacking people and this is before the bickering couple have even set of for their destiny with disaster. The couple played brilliantly by John Hargreaves and Briony Behets are a fairly dislikeable pair. A positive assessment of their characters is not possible as the viewer picks over the remains of their marriage and their subsequent actions. In a last ditch attempt to save their marriage they take themselves off to the sticks for the Long Weekend.Where this movie excels is in its eerie, creepy atmosphere which is assisted by the remote swamp/coastal off the beaten track location and the influence of John Boormans Deliverance on proceedings. The false hope aroused when the abandoned vehicle is spotted on the beach and then the locating of the tent housing only a dog amplifies their isolation and the terminal level of desperation and paranoia consuming the couple. Not only is their marriage on the rocks but our urban couple are clearly out of their depth in their location. A sequence of premeditated and accidental abuse of their surroundings by the couple is paid back in spades by mother nature at times in a quasi supernatural style which causes events to spiral completely out of the couples control. There is no happy ending. A much inferior remake of this movie was made starring John Caviezel in an almost shot for shot Gus Van Sant's Psycho style which does prompt the question why.

rstef1 From reading the other reviews I am apparently in the minority here. I truly enjoy eerie, deliberately paced Aussie films like Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave, but I need to care about or at least empathize with the main characters. These 2 protagonists just left me cold. I couldn't believe for one second that they would go off to the wilds on a long weekend of roughing it, and it was no fun watching them bicker and sulk for 90 minutes. Even when things are going downhill and any sensible person would get the hell out of there, the guy behaves like a total tool and stays. The big revelation at the hour mark seemed like a ridiculous plot device thrown in to keep the viewer interested, rather than a real life situation, and did nothing to explain why the wife would have ever agreed to the weekend trip to the outback beach.I will give both actors credit as they obviously tried hard with their characters, but the script gives them nothing to work with. To call this a classic as some here have done is extremely generous. I'd suggest watching a lot more films before bestowing that honor on this flick. For a more fun "nature turns the tables on man" flick, watch Frogs from 1972; it's silly but enjoyable. For a truly creepy lost in the woods movie, stick with Blair Witch Project.

Billy_Crash For an hour-and-a-half, this seemed to be one, long dragged out film.Sure, the acting was fine for the most part and the premise was intriguing, but the pace was slow and repetitive.Worst still, the characters were absolute jerks. Now, it's perfectly fine to hate the characters, but the rest of the story needs to be solid and strong enough to entertain us as we root for, in this case, Mother Nature. Even though nature was a definitive character, its presence was second rate, on the fringe and never fullblown as we needed it to be. This really didn't leave anyone or anything for the audience to rally behind. Instead, the audience trudges through a slow-paced ninety-minutes waiting for the couple to get their due.This is a DVD best left on the shelf unless you have nothing better to do.