"Their crime was against nature... and nature found them guilty!"

So goes the original tagline for Long Weekend and it does a pretty good job of summing up this Aussie classic. City dweller Peter (Hargreaves) takes his ladyfriend Marcia (Behets) out camping by a remote beach for the weekend. After a bit of an ordeal finding their spot, the pair settle in and begin enjoying themselves. In the process they commit all manner of environmental faux pas: littering, damaging trees, disrupting animal habitats, fishing and hunting critters. As the weekend wears on strange things begin to happen, seemingly in response to these faux pas. Starting off with an unexpected misfire from a speargun and the odd branch falling a little too close for comfort, it seems as though nature is giving the couple a taste of their own medicine.

Long Weekend is easily one of the best flicks featured in the recent Not Quite Hollywood retrospective, regardless of genre. On the surface it lays out a fairly simple premise, though one that was arguably ahead of its time, but beneath the surface are countless layers of depth. Sure, the story sounds a little silly, but it is well enough told that it is easy to go with. Best of all, Long Weekend is the sort of movie that can lead to hours spent debating the man vs nature concept it brings up, as well as the imagery of some of the later parts of the movie. Or you can simply take it as a spooky thriller without any further thought. It's about time more movies offered us the opportunity to simply take them as entertainment but carry plenty more for us to sink our teeth into should we so choose (though a remake of Long Weekend is in the works, so you never know...).