Nerves Jangled, Hair Raised, Spine Tingling

Yesterday I saw a film that creeped me out like nothing I have seen for years. I don't get scared at movies, but this one horrified me.

The film is Snowtown, a first film by Justin Kurzel. Kurzel's film was selected for competition at Cannes and it's not hard to see why. It is a searing account of the "bodies in barrels" murders that occurred around Adelaide in the 1990s. The perpetrators were, and are, Australia's worst serial killers.

Snowtown revolves around the psychopath John Bunting and Jamie Vlassakis, the vulnerable teenager he suborns into his malign influence. 

Daniel Henshall, as Bunting, gives a compelling portrayal of charismatic evil as he inveigles his way into the home of a fatherless family who live in Adelaide's poorest outer suburbs, an area of flat nothingness populated by people with no prospects. Henshall has a threatening on-screen presence, made all the more disturbing by just how ordinary he seems on the surface, all the while suggesting a deep menace.

Lucas Pittaway is equally brilliant as Jamie, in his first film role. He plays Jamie as a remote teenager who has bottled up some deep emotional traumas. He initially warms to Bunting as a father-figure, but experiences a visceral revulsion when Bunting reveals his true nature. From there Pittaway shows us the choking struggle that Jamie has in keeping his horror to himself, and his gradual turning into a cold-eyed killer.

This is Kurzel's first film, as well as the first film for most of his actors. Henshall is one of the few cast members with any real prior experience, mainly in a TV soap. The screenplay is also by a first-timer, and the budget was clearly minimal. Despite all this, Kurzel has crafted a film that is mesmerising and full of great performances. Even the music is brilliant, enhancing the sense of menace and acting as a metaphor for the white noise starting to fill Jamie's head.

Snowtown has some quite violent moments and can be hard to watch at times but, honestly, you could not tell this story without violence. The actual killings were so horrific that jury members had to be allowed to leave the panel because it was too much for them to listen to. Kurzel spares us most of that, and avoids making the violent gore-fest that this subject could have become. The film instead focuses on the "why" rather than the "how" of these grisly killings. He shows how people's petty hatreds, amidst a bleak life with no hope of a future, can allow good or inoffensive men to be manipulated and intimidated into acts of unspeakable evil.