SNOWTOWN

Ma's View:

I wasn't going to review this movie because it is in fact the first movie I have ever walked out of!  About 90 mins in the violence became too much to bear so my daughter and I left.  Apparently, as I later learnt, I had already seen all the violence there was to be!

The movie is a mesmerising expose of the psychology of serial killer, John Bunting, famous for the "bodies in the barrels" murders some years ago in South Australia.  At the same time it is a study in how someone like this can become a hero to the down and out, exploited and ignorant section of Australian society.  Played with equal amounts of charm and menace by the only trained actor in the cast, (Daniel Henshall), Bunting gradually gains ascendancy over a group of social misfits.  His special protege and eventual accomplice is Jamie, a vulnerable and abused teenager played by Lucas Pittaway.  The boy is torn between his conscience and his mingled fear, fascination and dependency on Bunting who has become a father figure in his life.

Clearly not to everyone's tastes but you would have to acknowledge that director, Justin Kurzel, who co-wrote the screen play with Shaun Grant, has done a great job of exposing a very ugly strata in Australian society where someone like Bunting could gain such sway that these events could take place with the full knowledge of a number of people in the group.

My score:  8/10 (if scored on an "enjoyment" scale it woud have to be 4/10!!)