Snowtown

The Australian film industry has been responsible for, at least, two of my favourite films of the last few years in "Samson and Delilah" and "Animal Kingdom" both of which were powerful, original and visceral.  Much of the power of those films lay in their honesty and their almost stubborn refusal to gloss over the hideous reality of the lives of ordinary people.

Now comes "Snowtown" from director Justin Kurzel.

"Snowtown" tells, in the most brutal fashion, the true story of serial killer John Bunting and his awful crimes.

Bunting, unlike many other serial killers, was not a lone operator and unlike some other serial killers he was not part of a deadly duo but was, uniquely, a man who involved multiple players in his sickening crimes.

Driven by a seemingly far right ideology that focused on "weak" or "disgusting" people including homosexuals, pedophiles and the obese he murdered at least 11 people in increasingly sadistic ways and claimed victims from a fairly small geographical zone.  Often he would force his victims to record farewell messages to their families in order to mask their disappearance and on other occasions he, or his partners, would fake such messages.

Bunting is played here by Daniel Henshall (the only professional actor in the film) and it is a performance of such conviction that it is unlikely you will ever forget it.  He embodies the idea of evil absolutely and is terrifying in a way that dozens of "Buffalo Bills", "Freddies", "Jasons" and "Hannibal the Cannibal" could never be.

The focus of this film, and the source of the fear, is Buntings relationship with Elizabeth Harvey and her family.  Harvey is depressed, battered and beaten...her latest partner has been revealed as a pedophile who has been taking pornographic photographs of her sons and who is living in the sort of run down, sink estate that drains hope from even the most hopeful.  She tries to find some solace in the local evangelical Church but it is only when Bunting arrives and drives out her former lover (in a scene that involves the mutilation of the corpses of two kangaroos) that she is able to smile again.

That smile doesn't last long as Bunting quickly asserts himself as the head of a group of locals who are hell-bent on ridding their community of the sick and diseased...by which they mean gays, transvestites and pedophiles.  Bunting whips the group up into a frenzy and encourages them to discuss the ways in which they would punish pedophiles and strategies for driving homosexuals out of teaching.  At the same time he develops an awful fixation on Harveys son, Jamie Vlassakis (Lucas Pittaway) who is desperate for a father figure and for a way to escape the "attentions" of his older brother Troy who has been abusing him since he entered his teens.

Slowly, steadily and with increasing assurance Bunting draws Jamie into his world and soon the boy is involved in the murder of his own brother and in helping Bunting and his other "friends" target victims and dispose of bodies.

Pittaway gives a superb performance as Vlassakis...quivering with fear, sobbing with regret and continuously submitting to the will of men in whom he has placed his trust and from whom he receives nothing but further abuse.  This is a calling card performance and Pittaway will surely now develop into a performer to watch in the future.

"Snowtown" reveals the terror that can exist in the most normal and dreary of worlds.  Buntings crimes are messy, brutal and with the flimsiest of motives behind them.  That he was able to co-opt multiple players into his sickening game is, perhaps, more horrific than the crimes they committed.  It is not a film for the faint of heart and it is not a film that one could recommend or enjoy but it is magnificent and important film-making.