- AKA “Snowtown”
- Directed by Justin Kurzel
- Written by Shaun Grant, Justin Kurzelm Debi Marshall
- Stars Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXgxhH01ea0
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s not strictly horror. It’s ordinary people doing horrible things to kids and each other. Based on true events in fact. It’s very grim and realistic, not a happy movie and hard to watch in places. But overall a strong thumbs up.
Synopsis
We hear a voiceover about Jamie, the narrator, having a dream about finding a man in his living room with his throat cut. Inside the man’s slit-throat is a Chihuahua that yaps at him.
Jeffrey asks Elizabeth out on a date. She asks him to watch Jamie and the little kids tomorrow since she has to go see her ex husband. Jeffrey, who lives across the street from them, takes photos of all the kids in their underwear, except for Jamie, who has to do it naked. The next day, Barry comes over to see Elizabeth, and he’s very creepy, but we don’t see why he’s come to the house. Later, Elizabeth just seems to know what Jeffrey did and beats him up as the boys watch silently. She calls the police and then they all go to church.
The next morning, someone new, John, makes breakfast for everyone after “dealing with” Jeffrey the night before. He gives them all a ride on his motorcycle. John then buys everyone ice cream later. John gets the kids to vandalize Jeffrey’s house. John and his friend Rob are very anti-pedo, and they seem to deal with this problem on a regular basis from various offenders.
The next morning, John is in the yard cutting up kangaroos with an ax. They mash up the bits and pieces and then pour it all over Jeffrey’s porch. Not long after, they watch Jeffrey pack up and move away. John teaches Jamie how to ride the motorcycle by himself. Jamie’s older brother Troy picks on him, which quickly escalates into Troy raping Jamie.
Barry tells John about all the perverts in town, and John takes notes. John and Jamie get their heads buzzed. Jamie stays over at John’s house, and we see that John has a crazy wall. John knows what’s been going on with Troy and gives Jamie a gun. John tells Jamie to shoot John’s dog– right there in the kitchen. Jamie’s not too happy to do it, but he does as he’s told and shoots the dog.
We hear an answering machine message that Barry has left town for a while. John’s watching Ray, a guy who flashes children at the bus stop. Jamie tags along to learn the ropes. Jamie hangs out with his friend Gavin and joke about the bomb shelter that John is digging in the backyard. Elizabeth gets upset when she finds her bathroom all bloody. We hear Ray leaving a voice message saying that he’s leaving town. There’s lots of pervy people leaving voice messages about leaving town, never to be seen again. Elizabeth and John have a fight, and Jamie warns her not to mess things up. Marcus is Elizabeth’s ex and the boys’ father. His friend is Dave. Are they a couple?
John takes Jamie out to the barn and shows him a dead body. It’s Jamie’s smoking buddy Gavin. He’s also got Barry in there. Jamie gets upset and pukes. John, Robert, and Jamie pack up Gavin’s stuff and paint his car a different color. Later, John and Robert torture Troy as Jamie watches. They torture him until he leaves a voice recording that he’s leaving town; then they strangle him repeatedly. Eventually Jamie finishes the job. “Good boy,” says John. Afterward, they all go out to dinner. Jamie tells Elizabeth that Troy left over money, but he doesn’t know where he went.
We get a murder-montage, where we see that John, Jamie, and Robert kill several more people. Jamie even impersonates one of them, Fred, at his doctor’s office. He gets “Fred” signed up for government assistance checks.
John finds Gary, a kid that Jamie knows is a harmless “spastic.” Gary shows the boys his snake that eats rats. Later, John finds Jamie high on heroin, passed out in the car. Their fourth accomplice, Mark, admits that he was high and mentioned something about killing men to his girlfriend, Verna. John warns Jamie to get off the drugs; the people they kill aren’t even noticed, so why get so upset?
Elizabeth knows something is amiss and sends her two youngest sons to stay with their father. John plays the recording of Verna “leaving town” for Jamie. Not long after, John, Robert, Jamie, and Mark carry concrete into an old building. This is where they stash the bodies. Mark doesn’t leave with them.
Jamie tells his dad’s friend Dave that he wants to sell him a computer. They spend the day together, but they go to the building where the bodies are stashed. John and Robert are there waiting for them…
“On May 20th, 1999, police located human remains inside barrels at a disused bank in Snowtown, South Australia. Two more bodies were later found buried in the backyard of 203 Waterloo Corner Road. On May 21st, 1999, several arrests were made.”
John Bunting is Australia’s worst serial killer, with eleven murders. Jamie did a plea deal and got a life sentence; he might be released in 2025 on parole.
Commentary
Last week, we crossed Africa off our list of vacation destinations after watching Saloum (2021), and this week, Australia is off the list as well.
The interesting part is that John is really good with the little kids; he’s probably the best father-figure they’ve ever had. Jamie rarely speaks, which gives him a psychotic creep factor, even though he seems to start out as a good kid.
It’s not really incredibly gory, but Jamie’s reactions often show how horrifying the scene is, even if we don’t get to see all the bloody details. I’m not clear on what David’s crime was; at first we thought he was the dad’s boyfriend, but we later see that that wasn’t the case.
It’s pretty twisted. The acting is good, the camerawork is great. Everything looks cheap and dirty, but still realistic. Actually, that’s probably the best part of the film; that it feels so realistic. This is exactly the way something like this would actually happen.