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Mystical, dreamlike horror film which poses no easy answers to the question of what really happened to a group of Australian schoolgirls who disappeared on Valentine's Day in 1900. Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay, the film is a rewarding entry for those who like their thrillers done with a subtle hand.

From The Movie Guide: "The critical recognition of Australia's film industry in the late 1970s can, to a large degree, be credited to the works of Peter Weir. After his first feature, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS, films such as PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and THE LAST WAVE exhibited a peculiar and fascinating mystical quality that revealed a distinctive sensibility. Unfortunately, Weir's decidedly personal vision is often rather murky.

"An exceedingly beautiful film, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK seems to aspire to be an existential thriller of some sort. At times the film seems to thread in BLACK NARCISSUS territory with its depiction of barely controlled sexual hysteria and its eccentric lyrical quality. It's all pretty overheated and underexplained but this arty, vague and possibly supernatural movie lingers on in the memory."

From Variety's review of the film: "Visually it probably is one of the most beautiful pix ever seen, with Aussie flora and fauna and wonderful blue skies. Everything has been carefully re-created with loving exactitude."

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This meticulously crafted Australian film has a remarkable sense of eerie foreboding about it. When a group of schoolgirls picnic on an unusual outcropping of rock they experience powerful forces of time, nature, & eroticism.

won.com


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