Latest / The Front / Choc tops and chainsaws: the Australian horror boom

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Choc tops and chainsaws: the Australian horror boom · The Front

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It feels weird to be adding a chop toop, drinking
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a coke while crying because you're so scared.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: A chok top at a horror movie is an insane choice.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: You like it here?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What do you like about this place?
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  Speaker 2: Lamaran and Tamerfia stuck in the sill.
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  Speaker 1: There's something scary about small towns that sense you're never
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  Speaker 1: quite alone. Throw in some unsuspecting outsiders, a gaggle of
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  Speaker 1: curtain twitching provincial medalers and some deep seated prejudice and
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  Speaker 1: you're on the way to the hottest Australian film of
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  Speaker 1: the moment. Leviticus is by award winning director Adrian Curella
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and tells the story of two teenagers subjected to conversion
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  Speaker 1: therapy by the remnants of a Pentecostal community in a
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  Speaker 1: one time Victorian industrial boomtown.
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  Speaker 3: Indecency, lust, desire, He has to go now, look at
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  Speaker 3: the line.
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  Speaker 1: Leviticus premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier
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  Speaker 1: this year. It was snapped up by film distributor Neon
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  Speaker 1: for seven figures and now it's terrifying audiences in cinemas
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  Speaker 1: around the globe. Horror is hot, specifically Australian horror. To
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  Speaker 1: explain with her hands over her eyes is our entertainment
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  Speaker 1: writer Jordie Gray.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's terrifying. It's terrifying in a way that Australian
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  Speaker 2: films are uniquely scary. But yes, I absolutely love it.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a future classic Australian
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  Speaker 2: horror film.
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  Speaker 1: What is that feeling that we get in horror movies
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  Speaker 1: and how much do you think it's fueled by the
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  Speaker 1: music and the experience of being in a cinema rather
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  Speaker 1: than watching it on your phone or watching it at home.
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  Speaker 2: You absolutely get more scared in the cinema and I
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  Speaker 2: think that's possibly why horror movies are overperforming at the
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  Speaker 2: box office, because you don't want to watch them alone,
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  Speaker 2: so you go with groups of people because they are frightening,
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  Speaker 2: and you go in consenting to be frightened. I don't
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  Speaker 2: know why we do it, like why do we want
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  Speaker 2: to be horrified? But I think that's just something to
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  Speaker 2: be in that dark space with that booming sound system
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  Speaker 2: and just like hearing the collective intakes of breath that
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  Speaker 2: it's yeah, going to horror is an experience.
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  Speaker 1: It must be bad for the candy bar sales though,
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  Speaker 1: because it feels weird to be eating a choktop or
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  Speaker 1: drinking a coke while crying because you're so scared.
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  Speaker 2: A chock top at a horror movie is an insane choice.
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  Speaker 1: Getting a screening at Sundance very impressive to me, and
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  Speaker 1: Levity Kiss has got one too. Right.
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  Speaker 2: There is this session at Sundan it's called the Midnight Section,
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  Speaker 2: which it's in the name, and many Australian films have
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  Speaker 2: premiered there. So we had talked to me. We had
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  Speaker 2: sow oh, doctor Gordon, I want to play a game
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  Speaker 2: James Wand's film, which I think is technically an American production,
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  Speaker 2: but it was adapted from an Australian short film, and
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  Speaker 2: we're going to collect that this indigenous Australian horror. The
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  Speaker 2: Moogui premiere there.
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  Speaker 4: They've seen children with white eyes, the children stolen by
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  Speaker 4: the Mugui. Sometimes we escape, sometimes we don't.
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  Speaker 2: The Bubbadouk Premiere, the sun Dance are actively seeking out
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  Speaker 2: Australian horror, and Australian horror is being bored by these distributors.
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  Speaker 2: So this movie Leviticus, that premiered at Sundance earlier this
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  Speaker 2: year and has been released this week, was bought by Neon,
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  Speaker 2: who distributed Parasite, that Oscar Gobbling Sensation and Anora, which
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  Speaker 2: also one best picture of the Oscars. It's huge for
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  Speaker 2: these kind of low to midrange budget Australian movies to
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  Speaker 2: premiere at Sundance because the whole of the industry is
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  Speaker 2: that all the horror directors go and are a part
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  Speaker 2: of it, and it gives them like the biggest chance
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  Speaker 2: to succeed on like an international stage.
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  Speaker 1: The Bubbadook was really scary. Issie Davis plays a grieving widow,
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  Speaker 1: a mother who is dealing with the loss of her
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  Speaker 1: husband and trying to deal with the grief of her
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  Speaker 1: son and failing to get through it very successfully. They
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  Speaker 1: start reading a book that has mysteriously appeared on the
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  Speaker 1: shelf about a creepy kind of figure called the Bubbaduk,
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  Speaker 1: and then the Bubbadok starts appearing in the house.
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  Speaker 5: If it's in a word or it's in a look,
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  Speaker 5: you can't get rid of the Bubba Duck. His name
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  Speaker 5: is mister Bubbaduk and this is his book a rumbling sound,
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  Speaker 5: then three sharp knocks.
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  Speaker 1: It is so scary. It's kind of all about what's
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  Speaker 1: inside your head too, isn't it?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? And what grief can do to you?
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  Speaker 1: Did the Bubbletok do well at the box office?
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  Speaker 2: So The Bubbadock is an interesting film because it wasn't
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  Speaker 2: a massive box office success, but it is often credited
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  Speaker 2: as a film that ushered in this era of grown
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  Speaker 2: up horror or elevated horror people like to call it,
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  Speaker 2: which has kind of taken the place of like prestige drama.
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  Speaker 2: So the Bubbadock was first, and then we had American
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  Speaker 2: films like Hereditary, Jordan Peele's film get Out, and they
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  Speaker 2: are films that address very real things trauma and race, and.
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  Speaker 1: They're not pitched at sort of eighteen year old boys.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the difference is that what makes it elevated,
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  Speaker 1: that it's not trying to just make you terrified.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's not just like splat. Yeah, they are dealing
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  Speaker 2: with meti films. I think they are pitched at grown ups,
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  Speaker 2: but young people like them too. Affectability prodress now vanity spawned.
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  Speaker 5: By fear.
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  Speaker 2: Waken friyt is debatably because some people don't think it's
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  Speaker 2: a horror but it is debatably our first horror film.
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  Speaker 2: So it came out in nineteen seventy one. There was
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  Speaker 2: a blanket ban on Australian horror films from nineteen forty
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  Speaker 2: eight to nineteen sixty eight, so it was kind of
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  Speaker 2: the first horror movie out the gate.
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  Speaker 1: Why horror? Why was horror band?
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  Speaker 2: So in nineteen forty eight it was banned by the
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  Speaker 2: Chief Censor, jo Alexander, who said this type of film
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  Speaker 2: has no cultural entertainment value. Its appeal only extends to
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  Speaker 2: a very limited section of the community whose mental outlook
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  Speaker 2: should not be fed with films of this nature. In addition,
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  Speaker 2: such films are a source of potential danger to women
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  Speaker 2: in a delicate state of health, could be hysteria, could
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  Speaker 2: be pregnancy, who knows, but just being female, just being dangerous,
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  Speaker 2: fragile state of being a woman, which is funny because
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  Speaker 2: women are driving the box offic sales for horror films
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  Speaker 2: now so so Waking for It came out in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: seventy one. It was actually made by a Canadian director,
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  Speaker 2: Ted Kotrov, but it was based on an Australian novel
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  Speaker 2: and set amongst the Ltback and it's just this barbaric,
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  Speaker 2: alcohol fueled descent into hell.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. A teacher who is stuck in this booky town
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  Speaker 1: can't get back to Sydney, and the locals kind of
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  Speaker 1: draw him into their clutches, don't they.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's I honestly think it's one of our scariest
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  Speaker 2: horror films.
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  Speaker 1: It's very bloody and there is a little splatter as well,
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  Speaker 1: like there's a horrifying kangaroo hunt scene which should make
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  Speaker 1: anyone a vegetarian.
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  Speaker 2: Oh no, absolutely, and it was real. Obviously it was real.
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  Speaker 2: It was the seventies they went doing cgi Kangaroos and
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  Speaker 2: Australia hated it. We really rejected it. There is this
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  Speaker 2: anecdote about like one of the early screenings and a
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  Speaker 2: guy standing up and saying that's not us, and another
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  Speaker 2: actor being like it is rte So we really rejected
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  Speaker 2: that movie. It went to Kahn where nominated for a
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  Speaker 2: Grand Prix, which is the audience award, But afterwards it
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  Speaker 2: was almost lost forever and it only saved because of
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Muttin Scorsesey here champion to restoration effort.
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  Speaker 1: Horror is kind of having a moment, isn't it internationally.
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  Speaker 1: The back Rooms is one that I'm way too scared
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  Speaker 1: to go and see.
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  Speaker 2: Why'd you feel me? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Follow my lead, Like, what is this? That's what I'm
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  Speaker 1: trying to figure out.
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  Speaker 2: I've been every night since I found the place, and
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  Speaker 2: I still barely scratch the surface.
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  Speaker 1: That's a movie adaptation really of a meme or an
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  Speaker 1: idea that's lurked around on the Internet for a long
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  Speaker 1: time of scary spaces, kind of around the edges or
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  Speaker 1: in between things, liminal spaces. Gen Z has freaked itself
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  Speaker 1: out about the train platform, weird corridor kind of part
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  Speaker 1: of Parts of the World. Tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about the back Rooms and why that is drawing young
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  Speaker 1: people to the cinema.
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  Speaker 2: I think Backrooms is interesting because it is based on
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  Speaker 2: a collectively owned ip that belongs to everyone.
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  Speaker 1: You mean, like a scary idea that's haunting a whole
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  Speaker 1: generation of people.
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  Speaker 2: It's kind of like folklore. I feel like these creepy
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  Speaker 2: pastas is what they call them. This bite sized horror
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  Speaker 2: stories are Internet folklore. The fact it made more money
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  Speaker 2: than Wuthering Heights, and I think unless you were super
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  Speaker 2: tapped into this weird online liminal community, no one knew
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  Speaker 2: what backrooms was.
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  Speaker 1: It got a really kind of slick production, didn't it.
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  Speaker 1: Chewitel Edgy of four was the star. He's so compelling
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  Speaker 1: and magnetic. An amazing set where they recreated this space
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  Speaker 1: that had been photographed and someone posted a picture on
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  Speaker 1: an Internet forum of kind of a disused office back
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  Speaker 1: room with dodgy carpet and horrible wallpaper that seemed to
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  Speaker 1: stretch on forever. You can understand why that's a scary premise.
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  Speaker 1: But they managed to turn that very simple idea into
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  Speaker 1: a whole universe of scariness, didn't they.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super interesting because it's like, how did a
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  Speaker 2: photo of a Wisconsin hobby shop being renovated become a
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  Speaker 2: one hundred million dollar box office juggernaut. So the director
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  Speaker 2: of Backrooms is this twenty year old called Caine Parsons.
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  Speaker 2: He started making these backroom shorts at home when he
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  Speaker 2: was sixteen, so he's he's a first time filmmaker. He's
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  Speaker 2: given a budget of ten million dollars, and I think
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  Speaker 2: this Studio twenty four were just like, we trust you
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  Speaker 2: make this movie because you know what the backroom's law is.
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  Speaker 2: And I feel like so many movies try so hard
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  Speaker 2: to appeal to gen Z, but they have no gen
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  Speaker 2: Z creatives behind it, and by handing the reins to
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  Speaker 2: this kid that was born in two thousand and five,
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  Speaker 2: which makes me feel sick to my stomach.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just feel like it's connected with young people.
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  Speaker 1: What a clever choice by A twenty four to fund
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  Speaker 1: these and they're associated with some of these other horror films, right.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, absolutely, they are kind of trailblazers in
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  Speaker 2: that space. A twenty four bought the Australian horror film
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  Speaker 2: Tork to Me, which was directed by these two twins
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  Speaker 2: in Adelaide, Danny and Michael Philippho, who kind of got
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  Speaker 2: their start making amazingly stupid YouTube prank videos like Ronald
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  Speaker 2: McDonald massacre. And they, alongside Courseway Pictures, which is an
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  Speaker 2: Australian production house, made this movie Talk to Me for
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  Speaker 2: like four point five million dollars. A twenty four boarded
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  Speaker 2: at Sundance after at premiere at the Midnight Section, and
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  Speaker 2: it went on to make ninety million dollars and was
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  Speaker 2: A twenty four's highest grossing horror film until Back Rooms.
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  Speaker 6: Light the candle to open the door, blow it Out.
• 11:43
  Speaker 6: To close it, puts your hand on it. Now say.
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  Speaker 2: Talk to me.
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  Speaker 1: There's so many movies that when I was we were
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: thinking about doing this interview with you, and I was
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  Speaker 1: looking back at the movies that have scared me the most,
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  Speaker 1: from Misery to seven to the sixth Sense, and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of them when I google them to remember what
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  Speaker 1: they were actually about, are not regarded as horror by
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  Speaker 1: horror purists. Is there a bit of controversy about what
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  Speaker 1: is actually horror and what's not.
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  Speaker 2: I think horror has been stigmatized for a very long time,
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  Speaker 2: so I feel like perhaps studios would have been reluctant
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  Speaker 2: to classify things as horror because there was a preconception
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  Speaker 2: that horror was kids stuff and it was somehow unworthy.
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  Speaker 2: And you get even in Australia, we've had these amazing
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  Speaker 2: horror films that were sort of trojaned into like serious dramas.
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  Speaker 2: I would say that Peter Wehirs, Picnic, It Hanging Rock
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  Speaker 2: horror film, the Last Way horror film, but they don't
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  Speaker 2: call them horror films. And I do think that just
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  Speaker 2: has a lot to do with stigma.
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  Speaker 1: What's the scariest thing you've ever seen on screen? I'm
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: still recovering from when Gwyneth Paltrow's head was in the
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  Speaker 1: box since seven.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: You know what, I think, it's the original Omen. My
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  Speaker 2: mom made me watch that when I was far too young,
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  Speaker 2: and it terrified me.
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  Speaker 1: Why does she make you?
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  Speaker 2: Would you because she said the Jordy, you gotta know
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  Speaker 2: what a good horror movie is like. Also, I feel
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  Speaker 2: like the horror movies that scare us most say a
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  Speaker 2: lot about what we are scared of. I have a
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  Speaker 2: new answer. The movie that scares me the most is
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  Speaker 2: the original Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I think
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  Speaker 2: it scares me the most because it's fears irrational. You
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  Speaker 2: could be followed home by I mean, perhaps not a
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  Speaker 2: hockey mask wearing lunatic, but a lunatic no less.
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  Speaker 1: I think hockey master are hard to come by in
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  Speaker 1: Australian so true, Thank god. Jordy Gray is an entertainment
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  Speaker 1: reporter with The Australian. You can read her deep dive
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  Speaker 1: into the world of Australian horror, as well as all
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the latest in culture from around the world right now
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au slash culture. This
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  Speaker 1: episode of the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey,
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  Speaker 1: produced by Kristin Amy, and edited by lead Samma Glue.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the front this week. Our
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: team also includes Tiffany Dimack, Joshua Burton, and Jasper League,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: who wrote art theme