Long
Weekend is a 1978 man
versus nature two hander
horror thriller about
squabbling couple Peter
and Marcia (John
Hargreaves and Briony
Behets) who go on a
camping weekend with
their trusty dog
Cricket, much to the
disappointment of Marcia
who would rather be in a
comfy motel room. You
see Marcia recently had
a miscarriage and is
finding it hard to be
close to Peter. Right
from the start it is
clear that the
environment is not what
it seems and both Peter
and Marcia treat it with
disdain with Peter
shooting or running over
anything animal while
Marcia takes it out on
the insects. Then, the
environment takes out
it's revenge and good
luck escaping. Well
ahead of it's time,
particularly with
environmental issues
being it's core theme,
Long Weekend is a solid,
well-written thriller
but boy is it
heavy-handed. Geez, even
Greenpeace isn't this
overbearing, but it
doesn't take a whole lot
away from the generally
creepy atmosphere the
film works in. Long
Weekend has recently
been remade almost shot
for shot only a couple
of years back, which I
capped back in August
2009 and is also pretty
good, but I prefer the
original if only for it
features one of my
favourite cinema victims
Briony Behets in
probably her best victim
role. Recently just saw
her fall down some
stairs while pregnant in
an early episode of
Number 96, so the hits
keep on coming for poor
Briony.
