This slog adds up to nothing other than the shocking truism that average people will do horrible things primarily because someone tells them to.
Snowtown
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Australia · 2011
1h 59m
Director Justin Kurzel
Starring Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris, Frank Cwertniak
Genre Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
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Based on true events. Sixteen-year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder. A shocking and powerful film about the psychology of violence and about how and why people will do horrible things.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Snowtown Murders manages to become a compelling exercise that excels at making horrible acts look shockingly listless.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
The Snowtown Murders reminds us that sometimes evil is immediately recognizable, but at other times it comes bearing bacon and beer.
Cigarettes are sucked hungrily by all involved, old and young, in the trashscape of this depressing Australian crime film - a movie that heaps so much dank atmosphere on its suburbanites, you can't help but sigh with relief when events turn to serial killing (finally?).
Terrific performances, especially from the menacing, lazily charismatic Henshall, and debut director Kurzel's expressionist storytelling make for an Aussie film well worth hunting down. A tough but seriously rewarding watch.
The sense of enervation that creeps into the movie's second half is bothersome mainly because The Snowtown Murders is often brilliant in its depiction of the mundanity of evil.
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