Down Under Rises Up: Nature’s Revenge in Ozploitation Cinema by Lindsay Hallam
The Australian outback is a place of isolation. Harsh and uninviting, it seems to hold within it the ghosts of past crimes and a will to destroy anyone who dare try to colonise and contain it. Yet, for the past two hundred years many have sought to dominate this land and in Australian horror cinema the land is beginning to take its revenge. ‘Ozploitation’ films such as Wake in Fright (1971), Long Weekend (1978), Roadgames (1981), Razorback (1984), Fair Game (1986), and Dark Age (1987), as well as post-2000 horror films such as Black Water (2007), Rogue (2007), and Dying Breed (2008), often have characters battling against the unforgiving environment and its inhabitants. In retaliation against the exploitation and abuse perpetrated by these white settlers, these films present nature as a presence that seeks to avenge and punish past wrongs.
Through the analysis of several key films from Ozploitation past and present, this article will investigate how these films subvert many common Australian stereotypes and question Australian’s national identity as one that is predominantly white, male and rural, demonstrating that nonhuman animals and landscape play an important role in commenting on, and embodying, national history and identity.
Keywords: Ozploitation, Eco-horror, Nature, Nonhuman, Animals, Australia, Revenge.
Germany is Not Texas. Finding Reunified Germany in the Rural: Christoph Schlingensief’s The German Chain Saw Massacre by Sarah Pogoda
The article deals with Christoph Schlingensief’s film The German Chain Saw Massacre (1990) as an immediate filmic response to the German Reunification of 1989/1990. Decoding the most prominent references to German history and the mythological narrative on the German nation, the article shows how Schlingensief appropriates Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) but at the same time creating an original filmic contribution. Focusing on both, Hooper’s and Schlingensief’s usage of the rural as a topography that is inscribed by national narratives, the article elaborate on the importance of the Ruhr region which is where The German Chain Saw Massacre was shot. By doing so, the article explores
the Chain Saw plot as a transnational narrative.
Keywords: Christoph Schlingensief, German Trilogy, German Reunification, Transnationalism, Capitalism and Cannibalism, Chain Saw Massacre, Helmut Kohl.
"We are Never Going in the Woods Again": The Horror of the Underclass White Monster in American and British Horror by Shellie McMurdo
This article uses cultural studies perspectives and refers to the eugenics movements of Britain and America, to explore the poor white character as an embodiment of societal fears and perceived threats in recent horror cinema: a traumatic monster that is feared because of its polluted identity and monstrous poverty. The exaggerated (mis)representations of the poor white character in horror cinema often take the worst depictions of the poor white body detailed by eugenicists, and emphasise them, turning ‘white trash’ or the ‘chav’ into an imposing and monolithic Other. This article compares the polluted cinematic identity of the Southern underclass in American rural horror to the violent ‘chav’ of recent British examples.
Focussing on Eden Lake (James Watkins, 2008), I propose that rather than interpreting the characterisation of the chav or ‘hoodie’ character as merely mimetic of the American white trash character, it is possible to read the chav as a specifically British monster which carries its own socially significant weight.
Keywords: Eugenics, White trash, Poor white bodies, Class, Eden lake
Bad S**t, Killer Worms and Deadly Dawns: The Cult Cinema and Rural Excess of Jeff Lieberman by Jon Towlson
The films of American indie writer-director Jeff Lieberman are justly celebrated for their quirky originality and allegorical themes that critique dominant ideologies. This article investigates his films Squirm, Just Before Dawn and Blue Sunshine as cult texts. Squirm is examined in relation to the ‘revenge of nature’ cycle of the 1970s; whilst Just Before Dawn is considered primarily in terms of its feminist subversion of rural horror tropes. Blue Sunshine, by contrast, is interrogated as an intertextual blending of 50s invasion-metamorphosis science fiction narrative, 60s psychedelic drug movie and 70s conspiracy thriller. It is argued that, although not as widely recognised by academics as, say, the works of George A. Romero, Wes Craven or David Cronenberg, Lieberman’s films have extended and enriched sub-genres within horror cinema and can be seen as crucial contributions to ‘The American Nightmare’ cycle of the 1970s/80s apocalyptic horror film originally identified by Robin Wood. The article considers the ways in which increased access to his work, especially to lesser-known titles (such as Remote Control), active on-line presence, and personal appearances at events such as Cine Excess have helped to raise Lieberman’s cult status as horror auteur in the digital age.
Keywords: cult film; rural horror; ‘The American Nightmare’; Jeff Lieberman; Blue Sunshine; Squirm; Just Before Dawn.
A Monster of our Very Own: Razorback, Howling III: The Marsupials and the Australian Outback by Renee Middlemost
Images of the Outback permeate Australian cinema as a visual representation of national identity. Filmic representations of Australia routinely portray the land in terms of its bucolic splendour, but also as an empty, sinister space; this in turn spawns rural excess as well as monsters, both man and beast. This article examines two films highlighted as part of the so-called ‘Ozploitation’ movement –Razorback (1984) and Howling III: The Marsupials (1987) - and will argue that their depictions of Australian ‘monsters’ reflect anxieties about national character and the local film industry. Despite their commercial entertainment impetus, Ozploitation films have been able to critique aspects of the national
character that official film bodies ignore, through the metaphor of the horrific outback and the monsters that dwell within. By examining Razorback and Howling III: The Marsupials in terms of their unexpected rebranding as Ozploitation films, I suggest that the omission of genre film from the ‘official’ history of Australian film, and the continuing lack of financial support is indicative of the angst surrounding the local industry regarding quality, nationalism and cultural cringe.
Keywords: Ozploitation; Australian film; Australian outback; National identity; Razorback; Howling III: The Marsupials
Entertaining the Villagers: Rural Audiences, Traveling Cinema, and Exploitation Movies in Indonesia by Ekky Imanjaya
During the dictatorship of Indonesia’s New Order regime (1966-1998), local exploitation films, layar tancap (traveling cinema) and its spectators were marginalised by legitimate culture. For example, layar tancap shows were framed to only operate in rural and suburban areas and were policed with several strict policies. Nonetheless, in this paper, I will demonstrate that layar tancap shows and their rural audiences are signs of cultural resistance which challenges legitimate culture, and that exploitation movies were a significant part of the process. By observing the New Order’s film policies as well as general and trade magazines, I will investigate why and how this kind of cinema operated as displays of classic Indonesian exploitation movies - the films the New Order was actually trying to eliminate - and how they generated a unique subculture of rural spectatorship. Here, I also want to highlight how various kinds of politics of taste - from the government to the rural spectators and the layar tancap entrepreneurs - interplayed in relation with local exploitation films, its rural audiences, and its culture of exhibition.
Keywords: traveling cinema, Indonesian cinema, exploitation films, politics of tastes, rural spectatorship, New Order, distribution culture, exhibition culture.
The Australian outback is a place of isolation. Harsh and uninviting, it seems to hold within it the ghosts of past crimes and a will to destroy anyone who dare try to colonise and contain it. Yet, for the past two hundred years many have sought to dominate this land and in Australian horror cinema the land is beginning to take its revenge. ‘Ozploitation’ films such as Wake in Fright (1971), Long Weekend (1978), Roadgames (1981), Razorback (1984), Fair Game (1986), and Dark Age (1987), as well as post-2000 horror films such as Black Water (2007), Rogue (2007), and Dying Breed (2008), often have characters battling against the unforgiving environment and its inhabitants. In retaliation against the exploitation and abuse perpetrated by these white settlers, these films present nature as a presence that seeks to avenge and punish past wrongs.
Through the analysis of several key films from Ozploitation past and present, this article will investigate how these films subvert many common Australian stereotypes and question Australian’s national identity as one that is predominantly white, male and rural, demonstrating that nonhuman animals and landscape play an important role in commenting on, and embodying, national history and identity.
Keywords: Ozploitation, Eco-horror, Nature, Nonhuman, Animals, Australia, Revenge.
Germany is Not Texas. Finding Reunified Germany in the Rural: Christoph Schlingensief’s The German Chain Saw Massacre by Sarah Pogoda
The article deals with Christoph Schlingensief’s film The German Chain Saw Massacre (1990) as an immediate filmic response to the German Reunification of 1989/1990. Decoding the most prominent references to German history and the mythological narrative on the German nation, the article shows how Schlingensief appropriates Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) but at the same time creating an original filmic contribution. Focusing on both, Hooper’s and Schlingensief’s usage of the rural as a topography that is inscribed by national narratives, the article elaborate on the importance of the Ruhr region which is where The German Chain Saw Massacre was shot. By doing so, the article explores
the Chain Saw plot as a transnational narrative.
Keywords: Christoph Schlingensief, German Trilogy, German Reunification, Transnationalism, Capitalism and Cannibalism, Chain Saw Massacre, Helmut Kohl.
"We are Never Going in the Woods Again": The Horror of the Underclass White Monster in American and British Horror by Shellie McMurdo
This article uses cultural studies perspectives and refers to the eugenics movements of Britain and America, to explore the poor white character as an embodiment of societal fears and perceived threats in recent horror cinema: a traumatic monster that is feared because of its polluted identity and monstrous poverty. The exaggerated (mis)representations of the poor white character in horror cinema often take the worst depictions of the poor white body detailed by eugenicists, and emphasise them, turning ‘white trash’ or the ‘chav’ into an imposing and monolithic Other. This article compares the polluted cinematic identity of the Southern underclass in American rural horror to the violent ‘chav’ of recent British examples.
Focussing on Eden Lake (James Watkins, 2008), I propose that rather than interpreting the characterisation of the chav or ‘hoodie’ character as merely mimetic of the American white trash character, it is possible to read the chav as a specifically British monster which carries its own socially significant weight.
Keywords: Eugenics, White trash, Poor white bodies, Class, Eden lake
Bad S**t, Killer Worms and Deadly Dawns: The Cult Cinema and Rural Excess of Jeff Lieberman by Jon Towlson
The films of American indie writer-director Jeff Lieberman are justly celebrated for their quirky originality and allegorical themes that critique dominant ideologies. This article investigates his films Squirm, Just Before Dawn and Blue Sunshine as cult texts. Squirm is examined in relation to the ‘revenge of nature’ cycle of the 1970s; whilst Just Before Dawn is considered primarily in terms of its feminist subversion of rural horror tropes. Blue Sunshine, by contrast, is interrogated as an intertextual blending of 50s invasion-metamorphosis science fiction narrative, 60s psychedelic drug movie and 70s conspiracy thriller. It is argued that, although not as widely recognised by academics as, say, the works of George A. Romero, Wes Craven or David Cronenberg, Lieberman’s films have extended and enriched sub-genres within horror cinema and can be seen as crucial contributions to ‘The American Nightmare’ cycle of the 1970s/80s apocalyptic horror film originally identified by Robin Wood. The article considers the ways in which increased access to his work, especially to lesser-known titles (such as Remote Control), active on-line presence, and personal appearances at events such as Cine Excess have helped to raise Lieberman’s cult status as horror auteur in the digital age.
Keywords: cult film; rural horror; ‘The American Nightmare’; Jeff Lieberman; Blue Sunshine; Squirm; Just Before Dawn.
A Monster of our Very Own: Razorback, Howling III: The Marsupials and the Australian Outback by Renee Middlemost
Images of the Outback permeate Australian cinema as a visual representation of national identity. Filmic representations of Australia routinely portray the land in terms of its bucolic splendour, but also as an empty, sinister space; this in turn spawns rural excess as well as monsters, both man and beast. This article examines two films highlighted as part of the so-called ‘Ozploitation’ movement –Razorback (1984) and Howling III: The Marsupials (1987) - and will argue that their depictions of Australian ‘monsters’ reflect anxieties about national character and the local film industry. Despite their commercial entertainment impetus, Ozploitation films have been able to critique aspects of the national
character that official film bodies ignore, through the metaphor of the horrific outback and the monsters that dwell within. By examining Razorback and Howling III: The Marsupials in terms of their unexpected rebranding as Ozploitation films, I suggest that the omission of genre film from the ‘official’ history of Australian film, and the continuing lack of financial support is indicative of the angst surrounding the local industry regarding quality, nationalism and cultural cringe.
Keywords: Ozploitation; Australian film; Australian outback; National identity; Razorback; Howling III: The Marsupials
Entertaining the Villagers: Rural Audiences, Traveling Cinema, and Exploitation Movies in Indonesia by Ekky Imanjaya
During the dictatorship of Indonesia’s New Order regime (1966-1998), local exploitation films, layar tancap (traveling cinema) and its spectators were marginalised by legitimate culture. For example, layar tancap shows were framed to only operate in rural and suburban areas and were policed with several strict policies. Nonetheless, in this paper, I will demonstrate that layar tancap shows and their rural audiences are signs of cultural resistance which challenges legitimate culture, and that exploitation movies were a significant part of the process. By observing the New Order’s film policies as well as general and trade magazines, I will investigate why and how this kind of cinema operated as displays of classic Indonesian exploitation movies - the films the New Order was actually trying to eliminate - and how they generated a unique subculture of rural spectatorship. Here, I also want to highlight how various kinds of politics of taste - from the government to the rural spectators and the layar tancap entrepreneurs - interplayed in relation with local exploitation films, its rural audiences, and its culture of exhibition.
Keywords: traveling cinema, Indonesian cinema, exploitation films, politics of tastes, rural spectatorship, New Order, distribution culture, exhibition culture.